Biography
János Kmetty was an important Hungarian painter and graphic artist and college teacher. He is an outstanding individual of Hungarian painting and art pedagogy. The family lived in Miskolc until the painter was 12 years old, then they moved to Kassa, he started drawing with Elemér Halász-Hradil in Kassán, then studied at the painting school of Ferenc Szablya-Frischauf in Budapest, then with Károly Ferenczy.
He visited Paris for the first time in 1911, where he studied everything, but especially painting, of the Renaissance in the Louvre. He was greatly influenced by the Pellerin collection in Neuilly, especially the exhibition of 60 paintings by Paul Cezanne. He studied the works of contemporary Parisian Cubists, especially Picasso. Six months later, Kmetty came home to Budapest and painted diligently, his first works showing the effects of Cubism.
The beginning of his career is linked to the literary and artistic magazine Ma edited by Lajos Kassák, he had many friends among the activists, then between the two world wars he was also closely linked to some members of the KUT fine arts circle, and of course to those from Kecskemét and Nagybánya. Many creative Hungarian artists were influenced by Kmetty's creative work with a modern approach, especially between the two world wars.
In his art, he continues the traditions of Cézanne. His oeuvre is consistent, reliable application and publication of the found formal language and subject matter. The main element of his pictures is the structure, cubistically articulated forms with accentuated contours.
In the summer, he went to the Kecskemét artist colony, later to Nagybánya, and then to Szentendre to paint. From 1946 he taught at the College of Fine Arts.