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KISFALUDI STROBL, Zsigmond Sculptor (Alsórajk, 1st July, 1884 – Budapest 14th August, 1975) 1901-1904: School of Applied Arts; 1904-1905: Stadtgewerbeschule, Vienna; 1905-1908: National Miniature Drawing School; 1912-1913: Julian Academy, Paris; Masters: György Lajos Mátrai; Antal Lóránti, Beneck Anton, Béla Radnai. 1903: First Prize for Small Plastics of the Applied Arts School. 1904: Deák Scholarship (Zala County); 1912: Rudics Award; 1917 the Knightly Cross of the Society of József Ferenc, 1919: The Award of the Casino of the District of Lipótváros; 1922: The sculptor Award of the Casino of the District of Erzsébetváros. 1926: Gold Medal of Philadelphia, 1927: The Golden Key Award of the city of Pittsburgh, the Golden Award of the Society of Fine Arts of Warsaw; 1929: The Hungarian National Small Golden Award; 1929: The Golden Award of the International Exhibition held in Barcelona; 1930: Arnold Ipolyi Award, Diploma di Partecipazione Monza, 1931: Corvin-Wreath; 1937: Diplome d' Honneur of the World Exhibition Held in Paris; 1941: The Middle Cross of the Legion of Honor of the Hungarian Republic; 1950 and 1953: Kossuth Award; 1952: Outstanding Artist Award; 1954, 1955, and 1970: The Merit of the Work Red Flag; 1966: The Golden Award of the Work Merit; 1970: Lenin memorial Medallion; 1974: Legion of Honor of the Hungarian Peoples’ Republic. 1925: Title of Government Counselor. Kisfaludi was a member of the Szinyei Society since 1922; he was the president of the Fészek Arts Club of Budapest from 1958 up until his death. From 1949: the member of the chairmanship of the Hungarian Society of Fine and Applied Arts; the member of the National Peace Society from 1955; Kisfaludi was also a member of the Hungarian – Soviet Friendship Group. He was a honorary member of the Arts Academy of the Soviet Union from 1958. He was an unpaid teacher from 1920, an invited lecturer from 1924, and a full time lecturer from 1925 of the College of Fine Arts in Budapest. In 1912, thanks to the Rudics Award he travels around the whole of Europe (Florence, Rome, London, Paris), and traveled to England and the United States between 1927 and 1928. Between 1931 and 1937 he repeatedly spent longer periods residing in London. In 1948 he worked for a shorter period in Paris, then again in London. Following 1945 he traveled to the Soviet Union a number of times, (1948, 1955, and 1960 to Moscow), as well as to other Socialist Countries. He was also invited to take part, as a member of the Hungarian delegation, at the World Peace Forum held in Stockholm in 1958. Kisfaludi’s father was an elementary school teacher in Göcsej. He won the first prize of the College of Applied Arts for small sculpture, given by the Applied Arts school under the name of Zsigmond Strobel. The talented sculpturing pupil studied for a number of years in Vienna, with the scholarship of the Zala Castle District, in 1904, where the style of Baroque Secession of Vienna had a large influence on his works. He also participated in an exhibition, held in Vienna. During the summers of 1904 and 1905 he studied at the galleries of Alajos Strobl and Ede Telcs. He participated in his first exhibition held at the Art Gallery of Budapest in 1907, however the periodical entitled Új Idők /New Times/ printed reproductions of his works from 1906. He gained his first workshop with the help of Lajos Ernst in Akácfa Street in 1908. He worked at the Colony of Artists located on Százados Street from its foundation in 1911 up until 1944. Kisfaludi was a multi-sided artist: he prepared portraits, nudes, relief works, small sculptures, medallions, porcelain figures, and primarily monumental memorial works. He asserted his technical knowledge superbly in all of his works. His works, from his monumental sculptures, to his small porcelain figures, are filled with vigor, elegance, movement, decorative composition, and ingenious formation of forms. His art developed under the influence of the strict aesthetics of German sculptor and theoretic Hildebrand Adolf, however the effects of the role model’s theories were slightly dissolved and more finely developed in his own works. Academism had a strong effect upon his works, of which he was an internationally acknowledged highly prepared representative. He was one of the three representatives of the classicist academism at home in Hungary, receiving a large number of commissions, besides Szentgyörgyi Sidló. His early, short spoken, closed compositional figures carry within them the moderate decorativeness typical of the age. Later on in his oeuvre Kisfaludi’s diversity of forms, growing form his romantic mind set, and impetuous depictive talent made him a master of expressive realism, the style of Neo-Baroque Academism became dominant in his memorial works. In his later periods he asserted the lessons and style tendencies of his earlier periods, and utilized those in the preparation of his works. He adjusted his technical preparedness to the expectations of the commissioner, however all along upholding the traditions of classicist art. The human figure stood in the center of Kisfaludi’s art. He was greatly significant as a portrait sculptor. His works prepared during the course of the 1910’s show the tendencies of the contemporary art of the time (e.g.: Portrait of Arnold Gara, 1909) classicist tendencies appear in his nude statues  (e.g.: Fürdő után /After the Bathe/ 1910; Finálé /Finale/, 1911) and are upheld through his later works (e.g.: Vénusz születése /Birth of Venus/, 1918; Lábát törlő asszony /Woman wiping her leg/, 1922). He received his first public commission for the preparation of the statue of Mihály Horváth, having won the tender of Szentes in 1913 (erected in 1934). In 194 he participated in the Munkácsy Tender. He partook in the First World War, serving as a member of the press-headquarters, he received a royal commission for the preparation of the Gorlicei áttörés /Breakthrough of Gorlicei/ (located at the Military Academy in Kassa, later destroyed), after which he received a number of commissions for the preparation of the portraits of a number of leading military figures (e.g.: Arz vezérezredes /Arz Chief Colonel/). His sculpture showing the influence of the art of A. Bourdelle entitled Íjász /Archer/, was prepared in 1918 (erected in the park of Budapest named Városliget in 1929). The work, with its baroque ardour, represents a new voice in the sculpturing of the time. This mentality may be felt in a number of his later works (e.g.: plan of the memorial of István Horthy, 1943). He also participated in the artistic life of the soviet styled republic, however without political consequences. He was a member of the Képzőművészeti Tanács Jóléti Bizottsága /Public Welfare Committee of the Fine Arts Counsel/, a plaster version of his work entitled Őszirózsás katona /Autumn Leafed Soldier/ was erected at both the Tunnel of Budapest and the Parliament on the 1st of May, 1919. The figure of the soldier is one of his folk themed works with an expressive realist attitude (other examples: Kukorica Morzsoló /Corn Sheller/, 1912; Ápolónő /Nurse/, 1917), which also appeared in his later works, (e.g.: Ózdi hengerész /Roller of Ózd City/, 1952; Sarjú Kaszáló /Second Time Mower/, 1954) He was one of the formal representative artists of the regime in place between the two World Wars, this was when his career came to its true fruition. During the course of the 1920-s he worked at the ceramic workshop of Miklós Ligeti, in the district of Anygalföld, and also exhibited with them in 1922, then in the 1925 and 1926 at the exhibition held in Philadelphia. During the two decades he prepared a number of heroic memorials from the First World War, primarily the work prepared for the city of Kapuvár, portraying the injured flag-carrying soldier leaning on the breasts of an ancient Hungarian female figure. He later prepared the War Memorials of the cities of Rákoskeresztúr, Körmend, Nyíregyháza, Nagykanizsa, and Gyöngyös. Of the irredentist memorial statues prepared for the Freedom Square of Budapest, it was Kisfaludi who prepared the piece entitled Észak /North/. His gothic styled worked entitled Madonna, of 1928, was prepared from a single column of wood, and was one of his few religious works. The work entitled Szent Imre (1931), was one of his largest sized public works, which he prepared at the commission of Princess Isabella, and constitutes a documentation of his sensual neo-baroque memorial style. His work entitled A Magyar huszár  /The Hungarian Hussar/ (1926, erected in 1932, in the Castle of Buda), however, with its rococo elegance, was suitable for multiple reproductions, by the famous Porcelain Factory of Herend. Kisfaludi received a number of direct commissions, and was often invited to participate in tenders. In 1938 he won the Madách Sculpturing Tender. The pedestal of the work was completed, however, due to the Second World War the piece was not erected, similar to his work entitled the Horthy-emlékmű /Memorial of Horthy/, the plans of which showed no similarity at all to the 1947 work erected on Gellért Hill. Between 1931 and 1939 he had his own workshop in London. He was particularly favored, as a portrait artist in London, alongside the painter Fülöp László. He traveled to London with the assistance of Simon Kemény, and the support of Lord Rotherme, to the world of the Royal family, and aristocracy. He prepared renowned portraits of members of the Royal Family on England (e.g.: the Earl of Athlone, Princess Alice, Queen Elisabeth) and predominant figures of the political elite (General Lord Allenby, Lord Camrose, Lord and Lady Snowden, and A. Chamberlain), and of the writer George Bernard Shaw, who was a good friend of. The portrait of Shaw, prepared in 1932, considered the most life-like portrayal of the artists constituted a key work of art in the oeuvre of Kisfaludi. The work is an undisputed example of the character forming capabilities of the artist. In the year of 1949 he prepared the portrait of Somerset Maugham, at the commission of the writer himself. A series of 72 portraits represent Kisfaludi’s portrait art, prepared during his London years, which may be found in different private collections, private ownerships, and the Royal Palace. At home his models came from the highest social classes (e.g.: Artúr Görgey (1913); István Tisza, Árpád Szakasits) and from the field of artists (e.g.: István Csók, 1924; Gizi Bajor, 1932; Zoltán Kodály, 1963). Following 1945 he traveled repeatedly to the Soviet Union, during which travels he prepared for instance his portraits of Manyizer and Vucsetics, as well as the bust sculpture of Vorosilov Marshall in 1955. The characterizing capabilities of Kisfaludi, as well as his high level knowledge of his profession, and the usage of materials made him one of the most outstanding portrait artists of his age. His career continued unbroken following the end of the Second World War. His work entitled És elindul a munka  /And the work begins/, of 1945, recalls the expressive style of the 1910’s, as does his work entitled Vándor Petőfi /Wandering Petőfi/, prepared a few years later. In 1945 he was commissioned by the Soviet leadership, based on the decision of Vorosilov, with the preparation of one of the most monumental works in Hungarian Sculptoring, the symbolic memorial on Gellért Hill, the Felszabadulási emlékmű /Liberation Memorial/ (1947). In 1950 he participated in the tender held for the preparation of the statue of Stalin, and re4cieved a commission for the preparation of the Millennial Memorial based on the figures of Kossuth and Rákóczi. In 1952 he prepared the statue of Kossuth, erected next to the Parliament. Between 1960 and 1966 the residing president of Indonezia, Szukarno, purchased a number of his early works. His movement filled, monumental piece entitled Végvári harcok  /Battles of the End Castles/ was erected in the city of Eger in 1967 (based on the sculptore plan prepared in 1930). In the last year of the life, of the by then eighty nine year old artist, his work entitled the Ózdi hengerész /Roller of Ózd/ (1973) was erected. Kisfaludi, independent of the political system was a true renaissance artist, who was able to work for commissioners of great opposition towards one another. Within the scope of his autobiographical writings he regrets the destruction of his works prepared prior to 1945, in a nationalist style, related to the propaganda of the era, as he states it would have been sufficient to place them in storages, as was done with many works following the fall of the Soviet regime in 1990, with many works which were prepared after 1945. His oeuvre consists of over 2600 portraits, more than 50 public works. Ábris Basilides prepared a film on his life and artistic career. A permanent exhibition of his works was opened in Zalaegerszeg, at the Göcsej Museum, in 1976. (translated by: Vladimir Végh)