# András Kenessei

András Kenessei (born Budapest, Hungary, 12 January 1942) is a Hungarian art historian, writer and journalist.

## Career

András Kenessei graduated from Kölcsey Ferenc Secondary School [Kölcsey Ferenc Gimnázium] in 1960. Initially not admitted to the university, two years later he applied to and got admitted to Eötvös Loránd University [ELTE], where he studied Hungarian language and literature as well as art history at the Faculty of Arts, completing his studies in 1967. He wrote his thesis on the construction of the Avenue [Sugárút], which is now called Andrássy Avenue [Andrássy út] – making him the first in his profession to write about this grandiose enterprise in Hungarian eclectic architecture which transformed the Budapest cityscape. He maintained his interest in Hungarian and international architecture later on in his career.
Kenessei's articles, papers on art, and reviews have been published in journals as well as culture columns in daily papers and weekly magazines (i.e., Budapester Rundschau, Élet és Irodalom, Művészet, Népszabadság, Ország-Világ, Rakéta Regényújság, Tükör, Új Tükör) since 1964. Since 1966, he has also written literary pieces, which have regularly appeared on the pages of leading literary journals, such as Kortárs and Új Írás as well.
Having graduated from university, Kenessei made a living as a freelance writer for several years. During that time, he interned as an editor at the publishing house Magvető Könyvkiadó and worked as a journalist for various weeklies. He later worked for the Hungarian Record Company [Magyar Hanglemezgyártó Vállalat], compiling prose recordings and jazz albums released by the record company. Between the summer of 1977 and May 1992, Kenessei worked for the daily newspaper Magyar Hírlap as a member of the editorial team responsible for culture and foreign affairs. Starting out as a correspondent, he was later appointed to be deputy column editor and, subsequently, senior newspaper contributor. Having written numerous highly professional reviews, characterized by both empathy and bold bluntness, he was commissioned by the ballet director and choreographer of the Hungarian State Opera House [Magyar Állami Operaház], László Seregi, to write papers to be published in the program booklet for all three of his Shakespeare ballet productions.
The pieces written by Kenessei for the daily Magyar Hírlap encompass several journalistic genres, ranging from articles, accounts, interviews, reports, and feature pieces, to reviews on films, theatre productions, radio and television shows, concerts, books, and recordings. In addition, over the course of the last third of his fifteen years as a member of the editorial staff, he found an increasing interest in the economic aspects of culture. This interest was maintained even after he left the newspaper, and, for many years, he wrote weekly articles on aesthetically and economically relevant issues pertaining to the art-dealing scene in Hungary and abroad, with his pieces being published in the newspaper's business supplement, entitled Pénz Plusz Piac (Money Plus Market). It was around this time that he also took an interest in the stock market. Starting in the early 1980s, Kenessei worked as a contributor on several cultural radio shows broadcast on Hungarian National Radio [Magyar Rádió], most notably contributing to the weekly cultural review show Láttuk, Halottuk [Seen and Heard], hosted by András Kepes. From 1986, he made numerous television news pieces as a correspondent for TV-híradó [TV News], interviewing nationally and internationally prominent figures in the world of culture and art for the daily news program produced by Endre Aczél for Hungarian National Television [Magyar Televízió].
Kenessei wrote a radio play, entitled Terézvárosi hazugság [The Lie in Terézváros District], which aired on Hungarian National Radio in 1979. In addition, the television adaptation of his family saga Százezer ős [Hundreds of Thousands of Ancestors], directed by Erika Szántó, was broadcast on Hungarian National Television in 1991. In 1989, Kenessei took up art dealing and focused on art-dealing- related communication, writing numerous articles, essays, accounts, and reviews about art and art dealing for daily newspapers, such as Magyar Hírlap, Népszabadság, and the business daily Világgazdaság (Zöld Újság), and also for various weekly magazines, thereby establishing a new genre in Hungarian journalism. The Hungarian National Federation of Retailers [Kiskereskedők Országos Szervezete – KISOSZ] invited him to hold specialized lectures on art dealing as part of the federation's first training course on art dealing, also commissioning him to write the textbook used in the course.
In 1991, Kenessei founded the art-dealing journal Műtárgy – Régiség [Artefacts – Antiquities], working as its publisher and editor until 2009, when it ceased publication. The founding of the journal coincided with the one-day conference held by Sotheby's in Budapest, which Kenessei organized at Fészek Művészklub, a renowned club for artists, in cooperation with the head of the company's Budapest office, Soraya Gräfin von Stubenberg. The conference saw six of Sotheby's department heads give presentations to Hungarian art dealers.
From 1998, Kenessei produced and hosted a television show dedicated to art dealing, entitled Licit [The Bid]. Concurrently, from 2000, he was in charge of the regular art-dealing segment of the radio show Chaplin kalapja [Chaplin's Hat], produced by János Simkó, and he also worked on the weekly show Tőzsdevilág (Stock Market World).
Since 2000, Kenessei has been living in both Vienna and Budapest, organizing and managing exhibitions of the works of contemporary Hungarian painters with his common-law partner, the Austrian citizen Katalin Herscovici, showcasing Hungarian paintings in Austria and Hungary. He continues to write reviews in Hungarian, publishing his pieces on visual arts and dance primarily on online sites. Additionally, between 2005 and 2007, he was a senior correspondent for Gazdasági Rádio, a business radio station, which aired his daily reports on the stock exchange as well as his sixty-minute weekly interviews. Kenessei's main fields of interest are the visual arts, music, and literature, collectively, along with contemporary Hungarian visual and applied arts as well as 20th century architecture and urban architecture. He has authored approximately 1,500 articles, papers, essays, portrait pieces on artists, and interviews.

## Family

Parents: Tibor Kenessei, Ilona Szűcs Child: Dávid

## Books

* Esős szeptember [Rainy September] (crime story) (Albatrosz, Magvető Könyvkiadó, Budapest, 1969) – Published under the pen name Albert Harald
* Történetek és kitalálások [Stories and Confabulations] (short stories) (Szépirodalmi Könyvkiadó, Budapest, 1972)
* Szeretők ideje [A Time for Lovers] (novel) (Móra Kozmosz Könyvkiadó, Budapest, 1979)
* A nyomozást abbahagyni! [Close the investigation!] (historical documentary novel) (Helikon, Budapest, 1981)
* Szakíts, ha bírsz [Break up if you can!] (novel) (Móra Kozmosz Könyvkiadó, Budapest, 1986)
* Lengőlábú Olivér [Oliver and his Swinging Legs] (children's tale) (Officina Nova, Budapest, 1988)
* Százezer ős [Hundreds of Thousands of Ancestors] (family saga) (Szépirodalmi Könyvkiadó, Budapest, 1989)
* Az átkozott lehetőség [The Damned Opportunity] (sci-fi novel) (Móra, Galaktika Könyvek, Budapest, 1989) – Published under the pen name Hank Jeff
* Művészettörténet dióhéjban [Art History in a Nutshell] (textbook) (KISOSZ, Budapest, 1990)
* Őszinte részvényem, avagy Hogyan tőzsdézzünk? [My Deepest Shares – How to Play the Stock Market] (essay) (PuttoPress, Budapest, 2004)

## Miscellaneous writings and other works

* Ötvenezer arany [Fifty Thousand Gold Coins] (play, published in the supplement of the theatrical magazine Színház, December 1986)
* Terézvárosi hazugság [The Lie in Terézváros District] (radio play, broadcast on Hungarian National Radio, 1987)
* Százezer ős [Hundreds of Thousands of Ancestors] (television film, broadcast on Hungarian National Television, Channel 1, 1991)
* Raondaoh (sci-fi story published in the sci-fi magazine Galaktika, Volume XXVIII, December 2007)
* Sötétben [In the Dark] (sci-fi story published in the sci-fi magazine Galaktika, Volume XXXVI, May 2015)