Lajos BARTA

Lajos Barta was born on 9 March 1899 to wine merchant Gyula Barta and Gizella Bródy. From 1911 he studied at the Budapest College of Applied Arts, where he was a student of ceramist Richard Zutt. Between 1920 and 1922 he studied in Italy. In the meantime he worked as a skilled worker in a terracotta factory in Milan. In 1923-1924 he worked at the Tim terracotta factory in Budapest. In 1925-1927, during his stay in Paris, he came into contact with modern artistic endeavours. From 1927 he lived again in Budapest. In 1932, he met Endre Rozsda, who turned his attention to modern art. From 1938 to 1943 he and Rozsda lived in Paris. Lajos Barta came into contact with the Surrealists and created his first abstract works. In 1943 he returned to Budapest with false papers. He was a member of the European School from 1945 until its dissolution. In 1962-1963 he was again in Paris. In 1963-1965 he worked at the Kecskemét Artists' Colony. In 1965, he moved to the FRG, where he was first given a studio in the Rlandseck Artists' Colony and then settled in Cologne. In 1970-74 he worked in Paris on a major private commission. From 1975 he received several monumental commissions in Germany. He died in Cologne on 8 May 1986, aged 87. In his art, he combined the classical avant-garde with the folkloristic traditions of Eastern Europe in a unique way. An archaic force permeates all his work, which follows the simplicity of natural forms. The variety of his art, based on geometric forms (spheres, columns, spirals) that are purified to the extreme, is a reflection of nature. His drawings and sculptures are influenced by Art Nouveau, Art Deco, Surrealism and non-figurative art. Lajos Barta was one of the few artists who remained faithful to the modernism of the 1940s and was guided by the ideas and designs of the classical avant-garde in the changing climate of the 1960s and 1970s. His work in this field is incomplete and unique in both Hungarian and German art. By the end of his career, h Show more