Biography
Béla Nemessányi Kontuly (Miskolc, February 3, 1904 – Budapest, April 14, 1983) was a distinguished Hungarian painter, art educator, fresco artist, and stamp designer. He was one of the most significant figures in Hungarian art during the interwar period, particularly within the Roman School and the movement of New Realism (neoclassicism).
He pursued his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague and the College of Fine Arts in Budapest, where his mentors included István Réti and Andor Dudits. Even during his college years, his works were exhibited at the East Slovak Museum in Košice.
From 1928 to 1930, he held a scholarship at the Hungarian Academy in Rome alongside his wife, Hajnalka Fuchs. In 1932, he held a retrospective exhibition of his work at the Ernst Museum. Hungarian artists associated with the Roman School were influenced primarily by Italian art movements such as *pittura metafisica* (metaphysical painting)—which foreshadowed the *Novecento*—and the *Valori Plastici* trend. Contemporary scholarship situates the cool realism, linear composition, and sculptural geometric forms of Kontuly’s panel painting—which matured in the early 1930s—within the orbit of *pittura metafisica*, magical realism, Art Deco, New Objectivity (*Neue Sachlichkeit*), and Precisionism.
In 1934, he joined the Munkácsy Guild Art Association. He created the frescoes for the staircase of the University of Szeged, the chapel on Hermina Road in Budapest, the Church of the Holy Spirit in Herminamező, and the Catholic church in Komárom, followed in 1939 by the murals for the St. Anne Church in Víziváros—the latter in collaboration with Pál C. Molnár. Other significant works include the decoration of the Dominican church on Thököly Road in Budapest and the fresco titled *The Promulgation of the Golden Bull* in the ceremonial hall of the Székesfehérvár City Hall. In 1940, he received the Capital City Award for his painting *The Raising of Jairus's Daughter*.
During the years of World War II, he painted a fresco depicting the founding of the diocese on the apse vault of the Vác Cathedral; however, this was removed during the cathedral's renovation—completed in 2024—to restore the original 18th-century architectural painting. He taught at the College of Fine Arts from 1939 to 1947. After 1945, he primarily restored frescoes commissioned by the church and created murals for various churches. In 1974, a retrospective exhibition of his work was held in Tokyo; this was his final exhibition.