Tamás Konok originally wanted to be a musician: during his high school years he was student at the Conservatory’s Violin Department, then member of the Győr Philharmonic Orchestra for five years. As a young boy he was present at Béla Bartók’s last concert in Hungary, where he was introduced to the famous composer at the follow-up banquet. After graduating, he decided to be a painter and was admitted to the Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest. In 1959, he settled down in Paris, where his first solo exhibition opened at Galerie Lambert in 1960. By the end of the 1960s he has found his particular form of expression: the line has become the dominant element in his work. “Representation by the line is the most abstract component of the visual arts, with which everything can be expressed: it indicates directions, bounds spaces, like the architectural drafts. The transcription of language-based thinking is also a sequence of lines, just like the notes that appear on the parallel lines of the music paper. My lines emerge from or disappear in the flat space, thus creating a sense of motion,” he writes about his work. “My work was unconsciously affected by the long years of regular violin training exercises and concerts. Paying attention to the perfect sounding, cadence, and tracing, as well as rendering the work as a whole is the common problem of all arts. All this I understood intuitively and it helped develop my painting. But I also understood that these two art forms are however different. The colors on the palette and the musical color effects have nothing to do with each other. I never listened to music for inspiration, though many critics mention musicality regarding my paintings. They might be right.” Tamás Konok played Bartók’s composition 44 Duos for two Violins, composed in 1931, several times; it is where the subtitle of the diptych comes from. KSZ