The Painter of Angels: János Aknay (February 28, 1949 – January 26, 2026)
It is with deep sorrow that we announce that János Aknay, the Artist of the Nation, Kossuth Prize-winning painter, and devotee of Szentendre, left this earthly life here forever today, one month before his 77th birthday, and went to be with his angels.
His dignified figure was almost completely united with Szentendre, the Vajda Lajos Studio and the Old Artists’ Colony; he is an irreplaceable loss for us both as a person and as an artist. Behind his deep-burning, characteristic, yet poetically beautiful, constructive-surreal forms, there were serious emotional dramas and struggles.
The artist, who was born in Nyíregyháza, settled in Szentendre in 1971, just when many young, “rebellious” artists of his age had found a home and a friendly creative community in the picturesque small town with great artistic traditions. Aknay first exhibited in 1971, at the 4th Open Air Exhibition in Szentendre, and a year later, in 1972, he and his colleagues participated in the founding of the Vajda Lajos Studio (VLS), a less stylistic and more nonconformist intellectual community of self-taught artists – Aknay himself did not attend the Academy of Fine Arts.
Since then, he has not only been an active organizer and participant in the artistic and public life of his narrower home, Szentendre, but has also carried out decisive activities on a national and regional level: a member of the Hungarian Painters’ Society, a teacher at the Sárospatak Summer Fine Arts Free School, a member of the board of directors and then president of the MAOE Fine Arts Department, a member of the board of trustees of the HUNGART Association and the NKA Fine Arts College, a member of the MAOE presidency, and a regular member of the Hungarian Academy of Arts.
However, he was primarily an artist who, throughout his entire oeuvre, consistently adhered to the ars poetica formulated in 1974:
“First and foremost, I strive for pure composition and structure, aligned with local traditions, and only within this, colors. I would like to create and present a world that is a closed order of my own closure, uncertainties, but also of my pure intention – I believe, colors (!).”
The pain is manifold for our museum, as János Aknay’s works are featured in the representative exhibition of six artists entitled INTERNAL SPACES, opening on February 7, where his works will be on display in the company of his beloved colleagues – József Baksai, Péter Bereznai, János Kalmár, Győző Sárkány and Tamás Szabó.
