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HARASZTY István sculptor (Pestszentimre, 1934 31st October - ) Between 1951 and 1953 Harasztỹ studied to be locksmith, then as a wrought iron maker from 1953. It was during this period that he began painting. 1960 – 1970: pupil of Huber Dési’s Fine Arts Circle, master: Ferenc Laborcz. 1975: Kassák Award, Hungarian Workshop, Paris; 1984: DAAD-scholarship, Berlin (was allowed to make use of between 1987 – 1988); 1987: Honorary Award of the Society of Canadian Sculptors; 1988: Munkácsy Award; 1996: Meritorious Artist Award; 1999: Pro Urbe Award; 2000: Kossuth Award. From 1986 he has been a honorary member of Society of Canadian Artists. Harasztỹ has been a regular member of the Széchényi Literary and Arts Academy. He has been the president of the Helikon Society of Kispest since 1994. Member of the Hungarian Society of Sculptors since 1995. Member of the Szinyei Merse Society since 1996. He taught technical knowledge at the applied arts school between 1957 and 1965. From 1964 he regularly participated in exhibitions both at home and abroad. Between 1965 and 1967 he designed decorative elements at the Lánc- és Kovácsoltáru Ktsz. (Chain and Smithery Firm). He was a decorationist at the József Attila Arts Center. Between 1967 and 1989 he was the interior designer of the South Pest Catering Trade Firm. From 1975 to 1976 he was the scene designer of the Csiky Gergely Theatre of Kaposvár. He prepared his stationary work entitled Elektrolízis (Electrolysis) in 1966, which was already a mobile work in essence, since it was prepared as the outcome of prior planning. His first true mobile (i.e. moving work) was entitled Körök (Circles), in 1967. The pendulum placed on a horizontal shaft of his work entitled Egyenlet (Equation), presented at the Gallery of Fine Arts in Budapest, working with the incorporation of the visitors, made great scandal for the press. The work entitled Hathúszas gyors (six twenty fast train) represents one of the most characteristic traits of his works, his irony against the political system of the time, first in a soft and exalted manner, later focusing on the anomaly of the one-party system, courageously ridiculing members of the party in an outspoken manner. It was during this period that the that the motif which was to become one of his most characteristic of his works, the steel-bronze rail system working with steel balls, first appeared in his works. Since Harasztỹ was quite open to the use of new techniques and materials, during the course of the turn of 1970’s, when Plexiglas first appeared in Hungary he changed from using steel balls in his works to incorporating Plexiglas e.g.: Kabóca VII, VIII (1978). The diverse and different possibilities and characteristics of working with Plexiglas, its transparency and refractivity, etc. meant new plastic and functional solutions to Harasztỹ (Kis Kopernikusz oszlop /Small Copernican Pillar/, 1970). Plexiglas also entered into the materials he utilized in his mixed technique works. His kinetic sculptor prepared in 1970 entitled Fügemagozó (Fig seeder) is an outstanding work of his oeuvre. Its preparation coincides with the rise of the new artistic styles of the period. During the time Harasztỹ considers the depiction of the aesthetics of the machine and the playfulness found therein as his main goal, and labels his artistic outcome as “Play Art”. Harasztỹ at the time strengthened and becomes more aware of the ethical and social approach already present in his works, as well as his sense of conceptuality. The gesture of banning his exhibition to be held at the Ganz-MÁVAG in 1972 was a direct result of this change, as a result of which he stamped the invitation cards for the exhibition with the text “Indefinitely Postponed!” and sends them out thus. Such movements and actions, based on such a degree of publicity become an integral part of his art from then on. The press paid great attention both pro and contra during the course of the 1970’s. For a segment of the press society Harasztỹ and his work represented the genius grown from a worker of the political system, which raised “society forming socialist art” to fetish, to a fine artist. Whilst others, recognizing the social critique appearing in Harasztỹ’s humor, began to fear socialist art from the formal and stylist innovations. His monographer János Frank calls his works, which may be brought into relation to Pop Art, gags, such as the music machine which stops playing music when a coin is thrown into it (Vurslitzer /1973/), the safe which gives out laughs instead of money (Steel Smile /1972/), or the work which consists of a large hand of a clock, which moves in counterclockwise direction over numerous smaller clock dial-plates, implicating the role of the Soviet Union in the Eastern European region during the period, entitled A Központi irányítás (Central Command) /1973/. One of the main works of the period is the politically emblematic self-contained, also providing the appearance of freedom, modeling slavery, entitled Madárkalitka (Bird Cage) /1971/. A majority of his works consist of spectacular “beautiful” structures, which with their dual or multiple meaning titles, and choreography of workings caricature the seemingly rational and democratic workings of the social order of the time. In the year of 1977 the Szent István Király Musuem of Székesfehérvár presented his first grand-scale exhibition. The kinetic medallions prepared for the Medallion Biennial held in Sopron, in 1979, which Harasztỹ prepared in a very demanding manner both technically, as well as aesthetically, however basing its construction primarily on gags, constituted genre-wise the critique of medallion art, i.e. the anti-functional representative type of creation (Díszmérték /Decorative-measure/, 1979). His monumental kinetic sculpture entitled Agyágyú /Brain-cannon/, prepared between 1980 and 1981, models the so-called carrier possibilities of the cadres in the political system of the period based on a one-planed hierarchy. In 1987 he prepared his mobile work entitled Termékszerkezet-váltás (Stemplire várva I.) /‘Product-structure’-change (Awaiting Stamp I.)/, caricaturing the bureaucracy of the period. The later work may also be considered as a Mail Art automat. Between 1986 and 1987, during his stay in West Berlin he was still overwhelmed by his political emotions (e.g.: Blood and Grass /1988/). Following his return to, during the course of the 1990’s he turned to the preparation of canvas images, wall plastics, mechanical and electronic kinetic relief works with assemblage characteristics (e.g.: Szín/valló [Color/Confess {translation: openly avow}], 1994; Mutatós kép [Show(y) Image], 1996), as a self-ironic critique of the highly regarded genre, by the newly arising Hungarian Arts trade. He prepared the 12 meter high Deák Dénes Szökőkút (Dénes Deák Fountain) in 1993. His retrospective exhibition opened at the Fine Arts Gallery of Budapest in 1998. During the course of the 1990’s he prepared a number of mobile works which interacted with the movements of the visitors of the exhibition, consisting of laconically simple structures, of which the most significant were the Tapsraforgó /Spinning-at-a-clap/ (1995) and the Döngöröm /Rap-Joy/ (1995). His perpetual-motion machines Újrakezdés /Recommencement/ and Idea (1997) are both also characterized by the exchanging of humor with philosophical immersion. His oeuvre engulfs a wide spectrum of genres and styles, incorporating unique applied arts items, interior designs, stabile, mobile, and kinetic sculptures and machine sculptures, as well as small plastics, paintings, and life-work sculptures. His house, constructed parallel with his life-work, considered a “living sculpture” is continuously developed by Harszaty. Musicality designed in a detailed manner, dramaturgy, and choreography constitute significant motifs of his moving sculptures, which are portrayed by the structural elements of his works as machine-like performances. The forms of his mobiles and kinetic sculptures, which conform to social critique and entertaining functions while also taking into consideration classical systems of proportion, recalling memories of the technical item cult of the Bauhaus in a similar manner as the biomorphic aspirations of the 1900’s. Harasztỹ, the founder of Hungarian Kinetic sculpturing, a characteristic inventor, who upheld his jack-of-all-trades naivety habits throughout his career, as well as his critical caricaturist attitude portraying the typically Eastern European mentality, is one of Hungary’s most significant contemporary artists. (Translated by: Vladimir Végh)