About his Art

Sculptor József Csáky (Szeged, 1888 – Paris, 1971) studied briefly in Budapest before settling in Paris in 1908 and taking a studio at La Ruche where his neighbors included Alexander Archipenko, Marc Chagall, Henri Laurens, Fernand Léger, and Chaim Soutine. Picasso and Braque had just begun experimenting with Cubism, and Csáky and Archipenko were among the first to create Cubist sculptures. Marcel Duchamp included his sculptures in the Salon de la Section d’Or of 1912. Unfortunately, Csáky’s enthusiastic and significant participation in the Parisian avant-garde was curtailed by World War I. He volunteered for the French army and became a French citizen in 1919. After the war, he incorporated smooth geometric shapes, cones, and discs into his sculptures and paintings. Late in the decade, his stylistic development led away from avant-garde practices towards figurative art, and his name virtually disappeared from art history. A recent resurgence of interest in his work resulted in several monographs.

Csáky first studied at the Mintarajziskola, Budapest, in 1905–06. Finding the teaching too conservative, however, he left art school and worked in the studio of painter and designer László Kimnach before finding employment at the Zsolnay ceramics factory and a lead foundry in Budapest. While Csáky’s own work in stone carving would evolve with his discovery of the work of Auguste Rodin, these early experiences laid the groundwork for an oeuvre characterized by a mastery of sculptural techniques.

In 1908 Csáky traveled to Paris and attended the Académie de la Palette. He worked in Montparnasse, in a complex of artists’ studios known as La Ruche (the beehive). Of the many works Csáky produced during this seminal period, most were in plaster, and only two survive: Standing Woman (1913), an abstract and austere statue composed of fragmented oscillating planes, and Head (1914), which is characterized by stylized lines and echoes of African sculpture. After volunteering in the French army during World War I, Csáky continued to make Cubist sculptures such as Cubist Head (1920), Head of a Woman (1923), and Panther (1924), while also experimenting with Purism, particularly in the series Tower Figures (1920–23). He also made reliefs in plaster, stone, and terracotta, such as the painted limestone Relief (1920), Young Girl with Blue Hair Net (1921), and Still Life (1921).

After 1928 the artist adopted a more figurative style, in works drawing on classical Greek korai such as Nude (1929) and the limestone Standing Nude (1937). In addition to a series of sculptures of reclining women (1928–30), he made multiple depictions of a mother and child (1920–39). In 1937 Csáky designed a public memorial to the 18th-century Hungarian national leader Francis II Rákóczi, in Grosbois, France. Despite fewer commissions and financial difficulties after World War II, in 1956 he made two large classically inspired bas-reliefs for the École primaire Delpech, Amiens, France. Csáky died in Paris on May 1, 1971.

Csáky participated in some of the most important exhibitions of avant-garde art in Paris, including those at the Société nationale des beaux-arts (1910–11), the Salon de la Section d’Or (1911), the “Cubist Room” of the Salon d’Automne (1911, 1912), and the Salon des Indépendants (1912). His work was later shown in group exhibitions at the Galerie Léonce Rosenberg, Paris (1921); Palais des beaux-arts, Brussels (1940); Musée de Bordeaux, Paris (1973); and Musée Bourdelle, Paris (1977). Csáky’s solo exhibitions include those at the Kulturális Kapcsolatok Intézete, Budapest (1959); Musée Rodin, Paris (1980); and Musée d’art moderne, Troyes (1986).

Csáky's artworks are available at the Kálmán Makláry Fine Arts.

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS:

2010

- Hollis Taggart Galleries, New York City, NY, Modernist Works from a California Collection

2009

- Kalman Maklary Fine Arts, Budapest Art Fair, Budapest, Hungary

2007

- MODEM Centre for Modern and Contemporary Arts, Debrecen, Body language - Antal-Lusztig collection II.

- Galería Leandro Navarro, Madrid, Los tiempos del Cubismo

- Galerie Marcilhac, Paris

2006

- MODEM Centre for Modern and Contemporary Arts, Debrecen, Ninety-Nine Years - The Antal-Lusztig Collection in the Modem

2004

- Palazzo dei Diamanti, Ferrara (FE), Il Cubismo. Rivoluzione e tradizione

 - Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Helenes Favourites

2000

- Musée d´Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris - MAM/ARC, L'école de Paris, 1904-1929 - La part de l'Autre Solomon Guggenheim Museum New York collection, acquired 1977, and the Modern Art Gallery in Saarbrücken collection, Figure de Femme Debout, or Figure Habillée (1913)

2006 – 2007

- Galerie Berès, Au Temps des Cubistes

1999 

- Exhibition Montparnasse - L'Europe des Artiste, 1915-1945, at Musée des Archéologique Régional d'Aoste, in Italy

1988-1989

- Exhibition Les années U.A.M. at Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris

1988

- Galerie René Reichard, Frankfurt, Joseph Csaky 1888-1971, Kubistische und Nachkubistische Skulpturen 1913-1950

1986

- Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Troyes, Csaky, Sculptures Dessins

1982

- Kubismus, Kunsthalle, Cologne, Germany

1981

- Fondation Maeght, Saint-Paul de Vence, Sculpture du XXe siècle 1900-1945: Tradition et rupture

1980

- Musée Rodin, Paris, Formes Humaines, neuvième biennale de sculpture contemporaine - Hommage a Csaky

1979

- Exhibition of Joseph Csaky Sculpture at Feingarten Galleries, Los Angeles (First show in the United States)

1978

- Orangerie des Tuileries, Paris, Donation Pierre Lévy,

1977

- Grand Palais, Paris, L'Art Moderne dans les Musée de Province

 - Musée Bourdelle, Trois Sculpteurs des Années 30, Gargalo-Csaky-Lambert Rucki

1976

- Palais des Arts et de la Culture, Brest, La Sculpture et le Cubisme

1973

- Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Les Cubistes

1973

- Galerie des Beaux-Arts, Bordeaux, Les Cubistes

- Galerie Dépôt 15, Paris, Csaky

- Hayward Gallery, London, Pioneers of Modern Sculpture

1971

- Tate Gallery, London. "Leger and Purist Paris”

- Museu de Arte Contemporanea de USP, São Paulo, Tendencias de Escultura Moderna, W. Zanini

- Los Angeles County Museum of Art

- Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

- Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Art Deco

1967

- Deutsche Gesellschaft für bildende Kunst, Berlin, Avant-Garde, 1910-1930 Osteurops

1965

- Athènes, Biennale en plein air, Panathénées de la Sculpture

1960

- Musée d'Ixelles, Palais des beaux-arts, Charleroi, Tournai, Luxembourg, De Maillol à nos Jours: 120 sculptures et dessins du Musée National d'Art Moderne de Paris

 - Musée d'Art et d'Industrie de Saint-Étienne, Cent sculptures de Daumier à nos jours

1959

- Csáky Retrospective Exhibition (Kulturális Kapcsolatok Intézete), Budapest, Hungary

1956

- Musée d'Art et d'Industrie de Saint-Étienne, L'Art de l'Afrique Noire

1953

- Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris, Le Cubisme

1950

- Centraal Museum, Utrecht, Holland

1949

- Volksuniversiteit, Rotterdam, Holland

1940

- Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, Cent Ans de Sculpture Française, 1933–1939

1937

- Exposition de l'Union des Artistes Modernes

- L'Exposition Internationale « Arts et Techniques dans la Vie moderne » (Expositions universelles de Paris)

1936

- Ernst Múzeum, Budapest                       

1933

- Galerie Casperi, München, Galerie Valentien, Stuttgart

1932

- Museum Heilbronn, Museum, Saarbrücken

1931

- Exposition de l'Union des Artistes Modernes

1930

- Exposition de l'Union des Artistes Modernes

- Reid & Lefevre Art Gallery, London

1928 – 1929

- Salon des Tuileries                       

1924

- Galerie l'Effort Moderne, Léonce Rosenberg, Les Mâitre du Cubisme, Paris

- Salon des Artistes Décorateurs

1921

- Galerie l'Effort Moderne, Léonce Rosenberg, Les Mâitre du Cubisme, Paris

1912

- Salon d'Automne

- Salon de la Société des Artistes Indépendants

- Salon de la Section d'Or,Galerie La Boétie

1911

1913, 1914, 1920, 1923

- Salon de la Société des Artistes Indépendants,

1911, 1945, 1949

- Salon d'Automne

1910 – 1911

- Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts