“Fényes, the man, is as much a treasure of Hungaryʼs artistic life as Fényes, the artist. His interests are not confined to his own artistic aims and ambitions. He can both survey the past and examine the present. His taste and sensibility never fail him. He regards the present with as much impartiality and objectivity as if it were a long-vanished period of art history unfolding before him. He sees the past with such vividness and clarity as if the classical masters themselves were still a living presence, working before his eyes. For him, the world does not end at the frontiers of artʼs domain. He is interested in the whole drama of life – the entire ‘Comédie Humaineʼ, as Balzac put it.
It is both instructive and delightful to hear Fényesʼs distilled views, delicate observations, and vivid words on the problems, memories, and novelties of art. And it is worth sitting beside him even when, on occasion, he paints not with a brush but with words the portrait of one or another of Budapestʼs most intriguing characters. Fényesʼs sharp and subtle gaze is not directed only at the outer forms of people. He sees the roots of human desires and vanities, of disappointments and self-deceptions, just as the whole range of natureʼs forms lies before him like an open book.
Fényes is a complete man among the many half-men of our petty world, and, humanly speaking, what is most beautiful in him is that which is also of greatest value in his art: simplicity.ˮ

Dr. FELEKY Géza: FÉNYES Adolf (1916)
Photo by SZÉKELY Aladár