Tamás GYENES
Palóc riven wood chest from Gömör
2010
beech, hewn with a hatchet, cleaned up with a drawknife
Photo: SULYOK Miklós
GYENES Tamás
1959, Balassagyarmat, woodcarver, maker of wooden chests and recorders
He has strong ties to the Palóc region. The influence of his grandfather’s carvings and that of his mother, a painter, is reflected in his art. He works as a woodcarver and, together with his wife, conducts ethnographic research. He draws on methods harking back to hundreds of years, such as hand-trimming and working with a draw-knife, to make his hardwood chests, which are displayed in both domestic museums as well as ones in Japan and the USA. He learned the tradition of making Palóc shepherd’s recorders from István Pál, a shepherd and a player of bagpipes and recorders in the village of Tereske, who was the only one in the country to continue teaching this craf in the Hungarian Heritage House and then within the framework of the Csoóri Master-Apprentice Programme. His most important recognitions are the Pomegranate Award (2015, 2021) and the Golden Diploma (2015, 2021). He won a one-year scholarship from the American Réka Darida Foundation for the research of hardwood chests in the Őrség and Kalotaszeg regions in 2021.
