Étienne
Hajdú, Hungarian-born
French of Jewish descent (1907 - 1996)
Original
Limited-Edition Embossing, Hand Signed and Dated By The Artist On The Lower Right
In Pencil, and Numbered 63/150 On The Lower Left In Pencil.
Name:
Abstract Lithograph, 1963
DETAILS:
Materials
Embossing On RICHARD DE BAS HANDMADE Paper
Dimensions
25 1/4” H × 20” W Size
20” H × 12” W Image
Edition Size
150
Condition Notes
Excellent Condition
About the Artist:
Étienne Hajdú (born István Hajdú) was
a Hungarian-born French sculptor of Jewish descent. Under the encouragement of
his Hungarian parents, Hajdú pursued his interests in carving and art.
As a teenager, he trained at a Budapest vocational school
in preparation for work in the timber industry. In 1926 his passion and talent
for woodwork led to a short period of study in 1926 at Vienna's
Kunstgewerbeschule des österreichischen Museums für Kunst und Industrie
followed in 1927 by his relocation to Paris. There he studied sculpture at the
bastions of classical art: the studio of Emile-Antoine Bourdelle at the
Académie de la grande chaumière (1927); École des arts décoratifs (1928); and
École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts (1928).
By 1930, inspired by an exhibition of Fernand Léger's
modernist abstractions, Hajdú abandoned his formal education and instead
engaged in the world of his avant-garde contemporaries, especially painters
Maria Helena Vieira da Silva and Arpad Szenès, with whom he had his gallery
debut in 1939 at the Galerie Jeanne Bucher, Paris.
Hajdú obtained French citizenship in 1930 and served in the army from 1931 to
1932, and again from 1939 to 1940. Between tours, he traveled for study:
classical sculpture in Crete and Greece, Piet Mondrian's paintings in the
Netherlands, and the Romanesque sculpture and structures within the French
countryside. Each experience had an indelible effect on Hajdú's art, which
further evolved during his 1940 – 1944 stint as a stonecutter in a Pyrenean
marble factory.
His exploration of different stones — onyx, marble, and slate — had a formative
effect, and in 1944 he produced his first marble sculptures. Often highly
polished to a uniform, undulating sheen, Hajdú's sculpture was expressionist in
theme, derived from the human form abstracted into volumetric outlines and pseudo-geometric
shapes that cleave distinctively into their surrounding space. Postwar advances
in machinery and technology led to experimentation in aluminum, copper, and
bronze, along with welding, hammering, and riveting. Modeling metal with his
characteristic sinuous contours, he created freestanding sculptures and large
reliefs that echo the body within their abstract, almost sublime, compositions.
Hajdú had his first solo exhibition at the Galerie Jeanne Bucher, Paris in
1946, and his sculptures were first exhibited through the Salon de Mai, Paris
in 1947. The salon was an informal group of Parisian artists who celebrated the
avant-garde and exhibited Hajdú's work again in 1950 in both Paris and Tokyo,
and throughout the 1950s and 1960s in Paris. Hajdú's sculpture was introduced
to American audiences through The New Decade: 22 European Painters and
Sculptors, Museum of Modern Art, New York in 1955. His sculptures also were
exhibited alongside line drawings in Sculptures and Drawings from Sculptors,
Guggenheim Museum, and he received his New York gallery debut at M. Knoedler
& Company (both 1958). The Musée des beaux-arts, Dijon, France, mounted a
retrospective, which traveled to the Műcsarnok, Budapest in 1978, and Muzeul
Naţional de Artă al Romniei, Bucharest in 1979. In 1969, the French Ministry of
Culture awarded Hajdú the Grand Prix National de Sculpture. Hajdú died on March
24, 1996, in Bagneux, France.
After emigration to Paris in the 1930s, he became part of
the Hungarian circle of artists and writers. He fought in the French Resistance
during World War II.
Etienne Hajdu was greatly famous for his sculptures
"Les Clowns", "Unite de Tension", "Mademoiselle La
Plume", and "Les Oiseaux d'Itte."
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