István (Etienne) Beöthy (1897 – 27 November 1961) was a Hungarian

sculptor Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

and

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

who mainly lived and worked in

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

Biography

After the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, in which he served, Beöthy began to study architecture in

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

. There he was in contact with the avant-garde poet and painter

Lajos Kassák Lajos Kassák (March 21, 1887 – July 22, 1967) was a Hungarian poet, novelist, painter, essayist, editor, theoretician of the avant-garde, and translator. Self-taught, he became a writer within the socialist movement and published journa ...

, who familiarized him with the tenets of

constructivism Constructivism may refer to: Art and architecture * Constructivism (art), an early 20th-century artistic movement that extols art as a practice for social purposes * Constructivist architecture, an architectural movement in the Soviet Union in t ...

and

suprematism Suprematism () is an early 20th-century art movement focused on the fundamentals of geometry (circles, squares, rectangles), painted in a limited range of colors. The term ''suprematism'' refers to an abstract art based upon "the supremacy of p ...

. His earliest work as an architectural draftsman, from 1919, displayed constructivist tendencies. In that same year he would write the manifesto "Section d'Or" (The Golden Section), which did not appear in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

until 1939. From 1920 to 1924, Beöthy studied under

János Vaszary János Miklós Vaszary (30 November 1867 – 19 April 1939) was a Hungarian painter and graphic artist. Biography He was born into a prominent Catholic family in Kaposvár. His uncle was Kolos Ferenc Vaszary, the Archbishop of Esztergom. His ar ...

at the

Hungarian University of Fine Arts The Hungarian University of Fine Arts ( Hungarian: , MKE) is the central Hungarian art school in Budapest, Andrássy Avenue. It was founded in 1871 as the Hungarian Royal Drawing School ''(Magyar Királyi Mintarajztanoda)'' and has been called ...

. He travelled on a grant to

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

, from where he undertook other travels to western Europe, until in 1925 he settled in Paris. Beöthy found a place in the Parisian art scene and took part in the exhibit of the

Salon des Indépendants Salon may refer to: Common meanings * Beauty salon, a venue for cosmetic treatments * French term for a drawing room A drawing room is a room in a house where visitors may be entertained, and an alternative name for a living room. The name i ...

. In 1927 he married Anna Steiner, and in 1928 he had his first one-man show in the Galerie Sacre-Printemps. In 1931, Beöthy co-founded the group Abstraction-Creation with

Georges Vantongerloo Georges Vantongerloo (24 November 1886, Antwerp – 5 October 1965, Paris) was a Belgian sculptor, painter, designer of furniture and buildings, and founding member of the De Stijl group. Life From 1905 to 1909 Vantongerloo studied Fine Art at th ...

and painter

Auguste Herbin Auguste Herbin (29 April 1882 – 31 January 1960) was a French Painting, painter of modern art. He is best known for his Cubism, Cubist and abstract art, abstract paintings consisting of colorful Geometry, geometric figures. He co-founded the gr ...

, and was its vice-president for a time. From 1931 to 1939, he had an exclusive contract with Leonce Rosenberg's Galerie de l'Effort Moderne, and in 1938 he organized an exhibit in

, which was the first exposure of his nonfigurative art to the public in

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much 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 south, Croatia and ...

. Like Herbin, he later explored parallels to other forms of self-expression, particularly music. His

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

s after this point develop along the lines of harmonies, which interact with each other like musical notes. During World War II Beöthy designed fliers for the

French Resistance The French Resistance ( ) was a collection of groups that fought the German military administration in occupied France during World War II, Nazi occupation and the Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy#France, collaborationist Vic ...

. In 1946, he became a founding member of the

Salon des Réalités Nouvelles The Salon des Réalités Nouvelles is an association of artists and an art exhibition in Paris, focusing on abstract art. A first exhibition with the name was held in 1939 in Galerie Charpentier, organised by Robert Delaunay, Sonia Delaunay, Nell ...

, and the

Galerie Maeght The Galerie Maeght () is a gallery of modern art in Paris, France, and Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. The gallery was founded in 1936 in Cannes. The Paris gallery was started in 1946 by Aimé Maeght. The artists exhibited are mainly from France an ...

in Paris showed a retrospective of his work. In 1951, he became a founding member of another group, "Espace", and founded the journal "Formes et Vie", with

Fernand Léger Joseph Fernand Henri Léger (; February 4, 1881 – August 17, 1955) was a French painting, painter, sculpture, sculptor, and film director, filmmaker. In his early works he created a personal form of cubism (known as "tubism") which he gradually ...

and

Le Corbusier Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , ; ), was a Swiss-French architectural designer, painter, urban planner and writer, who was one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture ...

. For a short time between 1952 and 1953, he gave lectures on color and proportion to architecture classes at the

École des Beaux-Arts ; ) refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The term is associated with the Beaux-Arts architecture, Beaux-Arts style in architecture and city planning that thrived in France and other countries during the late nineteenth centu ...

, and in his subsequent years he worked together with architects and was otherwise part of the planning for the expansion of

Le Havre Le Havre is a major port city in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy (administrative region), Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the right bank of the estuary of the Seine, river Seine on the English Channel, Channe ...

. Beöthy died in Paris on 27 November 1961.

Exhibits

* 1928: Galerie Sacre du Printemps, Paris * 1929: Galerie Zak, Paris * 1930: Galerie Bonaparte, Paris * 1931: Salon Kovács Á., Budapest * 1934: Abstraction-Création, Paris * 1942: Centre d'Etudes Hongroises, Paris * 1946: Galerie Denise René, Paris * 1948: Galerie Maeght, Paris * 1952: La Librairie des Archers, Lyon * 1953: Galerie Ex-Libris, Antwerp, Brussels * 1958: Berri-Lardy, Paris * 1974: Galerie Gmurzynska-Bagera, Köln * 1979: Skulpturen-Museum, Marl * 1983: Janus Pannonius Múzeum, Pécs * 1985: Beothy et l'avant-garde hongroise, Galerie Franka Berndt, Paris * 1990: Musée d'Art Moderne, Grenoble * 1991: Galerie Franka Berndt, Paris

External links

Official Site (French)

Another site, with many photos (French)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Beothy, Istvan Hungarian architects 1897 births 1961 deaths 20th-century Hungarian sculptors Hungarian emigrants to France

Biography

Exhibits

Further reading

External links