Frigyes KŐNIG

(1955, Székesfehérvár) painter

He was born in Székesfehérvár in 1955 and completed his studies in printmaking at the Hungarian Academy (now University) of Fine Arts between 1975 and 1982. After the change in the politician system in Hungary, he was the main organiser of the Hungarian art festival called Velence (Hungarian town, eponymous with Venice, Italy) Biennale. Besides his autonomous artistic pursuits, he also explores the borderline area between art and science. He started teaching at the Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts in 1990. He completed his DLA in 2000, and his Habilitation in 2002, in which year he was also appointed head of the institution’s Department of Anatomy, Geometry and Drawing. He was the rector of the Hungarian University of Fine Arts from 2005 to 2013, and since 2017 he has been a Rector Emeritus. He won the Mihály Munkácsy Award in 1998 and the Mednyánszky Award in 2010. Revisiting the 19th- and 20th-century tradition of cycloramas, he implemented the Kőnig Cyclorama in collaboration with other artists in 1991 and painted a mural for the Saint Stephen Cathedral of Székesfehérvár in 2022. He had a solo exhibition at the Kunsthalle Budapest in 2022 and at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 2024. His works can be found in several Hungarian public collections (Hungarian National Gallery, Ludwig Museum, King St Stephen Museum in Székesfehérvár).