Biography
Kató Petrich was born on October 20, 1908 in Budapest in a middle class family. She completed her studies from 1924 to 1928 at the School of Industrial Design, then from 1928 to 1934 at the College of Fine Arts, where she obtained a diploma as a painter and drawing teacher. Her teachers at the college were: Oszkár Glatz, Károly Baranski, Alajos Kisfaludi Strobl, Károly Lyka and Nándor Varga. She declared himself primarily a student of Glatz. Later, she also attended drawing teacher training at a teacher training institute with Oszkár Glatz and István Szőnyi (1937-38).
During herr college years, she developed her skills at artist camps. She participated in the summer artists' camp and subsequent exhibitions in Sopron (1929), Mohács (1931 and 1932) and Pécs (or Kökeny) (1934). In the summer, she later went on independent study trips to ethnographically interesting regions, where she painted many pictures: in Rimóc (1935), Tardo (1937), Kiskunhalas and Decsen (1939), and then in 1940 she was an official participant in the group research work of the National Landscape and Ethnographic Research Institute in Sárpilis, a copy of which can be found in the archives of the Museum of Ethnography.
In the 1930s and 1940s, she studied, depicted and documented peasant culture as a painter and village researcher. Her paintings bear the marks of a natural talent. Later, she illustrated textbooks, took on advertising design and silk painting, and when she managed to get a teaching job, she taught, most recently in the same school where she studied with her friend, Amy Károlyi.
During her life, she worked as an art teacher in several cities: Kőszeg: 1934-35, Budapest: 1938-40, Kecskemét: 1940-41, Újvidék: 1941-44, here she was a member of the Szépmíves Guild of Délvidék and her works were featured in several exhibitions, Győr: 1945-46. She joined the National Association of Hungarian Artists in 1943. In 1944, she married Jenő Petneki, who was then a teacher at the Novi Sad conservatory.
After the war, it was very difficult for her to find a job as an art teacher. Between 1951-57, she was unemployed and raised his two small children at home. At this time, she also worked on textbook illustrations and silk painting to improve the family's financial situation. Between 1957 and 1967, she taught for another ten years in elementary schools in Budapest as an art teacher.
Since she did not enter the Fine Arts Fund after 1956, she was no longer given the opportunity to exhibit her pictures. During this period she painted pictures for her own pleasure. Twenty years after her retirement, she died on his way home from a beautiful concert in Budapest, close to her apartment, on April 10, 1987.
Before the war, some of her pictures were included in several exhibitions, some of which are no longer available. Most of her pictures are privately owned, one of her works is held at the Hungarian National Gallery.
