István Beöthy

István (Etienne) Beöthy (1897- 1961) was a Hungarian sculptor and architect who mainly lived and worked in France.

Biography

After the First World War, in which he served, Beöthy began to study architecture in Budapest. There he was in contact with the avant-garde poet and painter Lajos Kassák, who familiarized him with the tenets of constructivism and suprematism. His earliest work as an architectural draftsman, from 1919, displayed constructivist tendencies. In that same year he would write the manifesto "Section d'Or" (The Golden Section), which did not appear in Paris until 1939. Fact|date=September 2008

From 1920 to 1924 Beöthy studied under Bela Radnai at the Budapest Academy of Sculpture. He travelled on a grant to Vienna, from where he undertook other travels to western Europe, until in 1925 he settled in Paris. Fact|date=September 2008 Beöthy found a place in the Parisian art scene and took part in the exhibit of the Salon des Indépendents. In 1927 he married Anna Steiner, and in 1928 he had his first one-man show in the Galerie Sacre-Printemps. Fact|date=September 2008

In 1931 Beöthy co-founded the group Abstraction-Creation with sculptor Georges Vantongerloo and painter Auguste Herbin, and was its vice-president for a time. From 1931 to 1939 he had an exclusive contract with Leonce Rosenberg's gallery "l'Effort Moderne" (The Modern Effort), and in 1938 he organized an exhibit in Budapest, which was the first exposure of nonfigurative art to the public in Hungary.Fact|date=August 2008 Like Herbin, he later explored parallels to other forms of self-expression, particularly music. His sculptures after this point develop along the lines of harmonies, which interact with each other like musical notes. Fact|date=September 2008 Eduard Trier mentioned: "Encompassing the poles of abstract calculation and objective reality, these wood sculptures display a pictorial aesthetic of unsurpassed completeness." Citequote|date=August 2008

During World War II Beöthy designed fliers for the French resistance. In 1946 he became a founding member of the "Salon des Realities Nouvelles" (Salon of the New Realists), and the "Galerie Maeght" in Paris showed a retrospective of his work. In 1951 he became a founding member of another group, "Espace", and founded the journal "Formes et Vie" (Life Forms) with the artist Fernand Leger and the architect Le Corbusier. For a short time between 1952 and 1953 he gave lectures on color and proportion to architecture classes at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, and in his subsequent years he worked together with architects and was otherwise part of the planning for the expansion of Le Havre. Fact|date=September 2008

Beöthy died in Paris on November 27th, 1961.

Exhibits

* 1928 • Galerie Sacre du Printemps, Paris
* 1929 • Galerie Zak, Paris
* 1930 • Galerie Bonaparte, Paris
* 1931 • SALON Kovács Á., Budapest
* 1934 • Abstraction-Création, Paris
* 1942 • Centre d'Etudes Hongroises, Paris
* 1946 • Galerie Denise René, Paris
* 1948 • Galerie Maeght, Paris
* 1952 • La Librairie des Archers, Lyon
* 1953 • Galerie Ex-Libris, Antwerp, Brussels
* 1958 • Berri-Lardy, Paris
* 1974 • Galerie Gmurzynska-Bagera, Köln
* 1979 • Skulpturen-Museum, Marl
* 1983 • Janus Pannonius Múzeum, Pécs
* 1985 • Beothy et l'avant-garde hongroise, Galerie Franka Berndt, Paris
* 1990 • Musée d'Art Moderne, Grenoble
* 1991 • Galerie Franka Berndt, Paris.

Further reading

* cite book
last = Read
first = Sir Herbert Edward
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = A Concise History of Modern Sculpture
publisher = Holt Rhinehart and Winston
date = 1964
location =
pages =
url =
doi =
id =
isbn = 0275415406

External links

* [http://www.etienne-beothy.com Official Site (French)]