Alexander Finta (1881–1958) was a Hungarian-born American artist. Finta received his early education in Europe before moving onto Columbia University. He settled in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

in 1939 and proceeded to mainly create marble and bronze busts. He worked for

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...

until his death in 1958.

Early life

Alexander Finta was born in

Túrkeve Túrkeve is a town in Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok county, in the Northern Great Plain region of Hungary. Geography It covers an area of . Demographics According to the 2011 census, the total population of Túrkeve was 9,008, of whom there were 87.8% ...

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...

on June 18, 1881. He obtained his diploma in

mechanical engineering Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and mathematics principles with materials science, to design, analyze, manufacture, an ...

before moving to Budapest and Florence to study art. Finta then traveled to Paris, where he studied with Auguste Rodin. After serving in World War I, he created a number of war memorials. In 1917, he was appointed the "expert in art and archeology" by the Hungarian government. After the war, the

Hungarian Democratic Republic The First Hungarian Republic ( hu, Első Magyar Köztársaság), until 21 March 1919 the Hungarian People's Republic (), was a short-lived unrecognized country, which quickly transformed into a small rump state due to the foreign and military ...

was formed, and to escape internal conflict, Finta moved to

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

in 1919. In

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a ...

, Finta created many monuments, including ''Strength'', a 12-foot granite statue for the Fluminenci Club. He also created ''Christ'' for the

Old Cathedral of Rio de Janeiro The Old Cathedral of Rio de Janeiro dedicated to Our Lady of Mount Carmel (full name in ) is an old Carmelite church which served as cathedral (''Sé'') of Rio de Janeiro from around 1808 until 1976. During the 19th century, it was also used su ...

. While still in Rio, Finta served as the director-in-chief for sculpture for the 1922–1923 Rio

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Life in the United States

Archives of American Art - Alexander Finta with his sculpture - 2096

In 1923 Finta moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

to escape the

yellow fever Yellow fever is a viral disease of typically short duration. In most cases, symptoms include fever, chills, loss of appetite, nausea, muscle pains – particularly in the back – and headaches. Symptoms typically improve within five days. ...

outbreaks in Brazil. Seven years later, Finta would be a naturalized citizen. In New York, Finta would create the sculpture of

Stephen I of Hungary Stephen I, also known as King Saint Stephen ( hu, Szent István király ; la, Sanctus Stephanus; sk, Štefan I. or Štefan Veľký; 975 – 15 August 1038), was the last Grand Prince of the Hungarians between 997 and 1000 or 1001, and the ...

which resides in St. Stephen of Hungary Church in New York City. The piece was created to commemorate the church's new location on the

Upper East Side The Upper East Side, sometimes abbreviated UES, is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 96th Street to the north, the East River to the east, 59th Street to the south, and Central Park/Fifth Avenue to the wes ...

, which was completed in 1928. Finta would marry his second wife, Catherine, who was a painter and a professor of design. Her own work was shown at the Brooklyn Museum. In New York, Finta would have commissions from New York's Authors Club, the First Presbyterian Church, the Hungarian Reference Library, Cleveland Public Library, the city's Department of Health, and numerous public artworks within the region. He was also a book illustrator, poet, author and journalist. His most notable book, ''Herdboy of Hungary: The True Story of Mocskos,'' was written with Jeanette Eaton. Upon the books release, ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', in 1933, described it as "a book that has the unmistakable ring of truth" with illustrations that display "beauty and strangeness and the vigor of the text." Around the beginning of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, Finta moved to

. There, he joined the Painters and Sculptors Club of Southern California and from 1944 until 1945 he worked for

. He died on August 3, 1958.

Legacy

In his will, Finta left the majority of his work to his hometown of Túrkeve; a large portion went to form the collection of the city's Finta Múzeum.

Notable collections

*''Patrick Cardinal Hayes'', 1927;

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Finta 1881 births 1958 deaths Sculptors from New York (state) Painters from Los Angeles Artists from Rio de Janeiro (city) Hungarian sculptors Hungarian emigrants to the United States 20th-century American sculptors 20th-century American male artists American male sculptors 20th-century American painters American male painters Federal Art Project artists Sculptors from California