The exhibition entitled “My Secret World” presents the drawings of the librarian of the Hungarian National Gallery, Béla Szikszay. Historical themes and the world of engravings from the 16th and 17th centuries come to life in these drawings, and this is meant literally. The revival is nothing other than the heroes of these old pictures – Bálint Balassi, Ferenc Wesselényi, Pál Esterházy, Miklós Zrínyi and others – stepping out of their own time. The drawings, created in the style of the old engravings, always contain some astonishing, novel motif, motto or gesture that is out of place in their time.
Béla Szikszay loves meticulous, precise depictions, and in his carefully executed drawings he strives for period accuracy. His works are preceded by thorough historical research. Today’s viewers hardly notice that the historical figures in the original engravings are taken out of their former surroundings and heroic poses and depicted in a variety of everyday, unusual and even absurd situations. Sometimes he further imagines the events depicted in the engravings. Sometimes he sends characters from 20th-century photographs back in time to the 16th and 17th centuries. He often approaches his subjects and heroes with irony, but always with love. It is a playful and very serious art, a play on history and a play on styles.