Étienne BEÖTHY

Étienne Beöthy Étienne Beöthy, born on September 2, 1897 as István Beöthy in the Hungarian town of Heves, was an architect and sculptor whose complete works are unconventional and independent. Although Beöthy was not one of the great innovators of modern sculpture, his works – in which theoretical fundamentals and artistic free designs are closely intertwined – stimulated new developments through their consequence and determination. Early Life After the First World War, Beöthy registered at the Architecture College in Budapest. Already in 1919, he summarized his reflections on the theory of proportions and, above all, on the golden ratio in the treatise La Serie d’Or. This was to become the theoretical foundation of his work, but the text was only published twenty years later. In 1919, Beöthy became friends with László Moholy-Nagy and the avant-gardist artist group MA (today) around Lajos Kassák, which was primarily influenced by constructivism and suprematism. Consequently, Beöthy’s first works exhibited an architectural-constructivist influence. In all of his creative work, Beöthy remained "architectural" and combined mathematically calculated construction with free artistic design.In 1920, Beöthy switched to the Budapest College for Fine Arts and concentrated on sculpture. With a graduation scholarship, he travelled through Austria, Germany, England, and Italy beginning in 1924 and finally settled in Paris in 1925. The phase of experimentation was also over at this time.  About his Art Beöthy wanted to translate what he theoretically formulated in the golden ration into three-dimensional terms. He began with the human figure, but distanced himself increasingly from it through the course of the years. The artist discovered wood, which then became his preferred material.In 1928, Beothy became well known in Paris with a successful series of exhibitions. This was followed by individual and group exhibitions throughout all of Europe. Together with his friend Auguste H Show more