Great artist, sculptor, graphic designer.
He was born in a poor family in the Iosefin district. It is already during his primary classes attended in Temesvár when his teachers discover his special talent for drawing. Until 1909 he studies at the Vocational Art School (with his teacher, Andras Sipos) in his native town then, as he wins one of the town’s grants, he continues his studies at the Upper School of Decorative Arts in Budapest. Here, at the end of the first year, his professors notice his nude studies and his talent for sculpture. He participates in the National Art Saloon’s exhibitions and, with a poster executed in his second year at the University, he wins the jubiliary exhibition’s prize. The war’s outburst finds him as a university assistant.
In 1914 he is enlisted and sent to the front in Serbia, then to Russia; a year later he is held prisoner. He spends seven years in Russia; he works as a carpenter, carver and jeweller, he polishes steps and does translations, he is a miner in the coal mines etc; he tries to evade but he fails. After the revolution he studies sculpture at the Art Academy in Moscow (1919-1921). During this period of time, he designs stage costumes and works as a stage director. He becomes the supporter of constructivism. Here he discovers the sources of inspiration for his next little art creations: The Portrait of a Boor, Russian Peasant singing the Balalaica, Nude with a Balalaica, Porter in the Port.
At the end of 1921 he returns to Timisoara. In 1922, at his first solo exhibition, he exhibits his very successful creation – Life
– carved in stone. His tender works of art representing Maternity or Mother with her Infant, reflect the influence of the Croatian sculptor Iván Mestrović. He works both in stone and wood, he casts a number of plates, and models the gypsum. He keeps studying the process applied to obtain the porcelain.
For two years, in 1922 and 1923, together with his friend, Albert Varga, he travels to München and Dresda to study at the free school of arts, Der Weg. In 1923 he participates in a great collective exhibition in Timisoara. His little works of art tend towards monumental dimensions. Some of these, conceived in the constructivist spirit yet expressing the features encountered in cubism or expressionism too (Worker at the Pavement, Nude on his Kneels, Spring), are cast in bronze at Bucharest (1928). His personal exhibition in 1928 highlights a real success. Besides the tall, essentialised and elegant silhouettes – Salome, Nude with a Towel, Mother with her Infant, Madonna, The Fountain of Life – one could see works of art such as The Boor, Woman with the Brushwood etc. illustrating the artist’s left-sided orientation.
Between 1924 and 1927 he executes symbolical reliefs for the facades of some public buildings in Timisoara: the reliefs and friezes of the Ciobanu Palace, the high-relief of the Working Club’s facade, the ornaments at the Kuhn Pharmacy’s entrance. He responds to the orders of more localities from Banat and builds the monuments of the soldiers who died during the First World War (Ciacova, Şandra). He designs and carves the funeral monuments of some rich families from Timisoara. They represent his greatest works of art. He carries out the social orders until the end of his life.
In 1925 he joins the group of artists working for the magazine of literature and art Periscope, published at Arad; here, besides the sculptures’ photography’s, he publishes his writings in the domain of avant-garde literature, as well as the Russian translations. His works of art are reproduced as illustrations in the following magazines: Temesvári Hírlap, Banatul, Pásztortűz, Erdélyi Helikon, etc. He studies the relationship between dance and sculpture, designs the costumes and stage representations of the rhythmic dance school run by his wife, Jenny Janura.
His little work of art, Grotesque Dance, executed in the technique, which imitates the terracotta, wins the first prize at the National Saloon’s exhibition in Bucharest in 1928. In the same year he is awarded with the first prize at the contest organised by the Gardners’ Association in Timisoara. He models the bust of Queen Maria for the Association of Rose Amateurs. He is delighted to create children portraits, models the bust portraits of some contemporary artists from Timisoara or some friends: dr. Schönberg Móric, Varga Albert, Szuhanek Oszkár, Sabin Drăgoi, Else Kornis, Endre Károly.
In 1930 he collaborates in the organisation of the first Art Saloon in Arad, together with Podlipny Iulius. Although not systematically, but he teaches at the Free Art School and supervises the young artists. He is a founding member of the „Barabás Miklós” Guild (1930).
Starting with 1934, the disease he catches during the war-time gets worse and he works harder and harder. In 1936 he finishes the high-relief for the house where the poet Ady Endre had lived. He associates with entrepreneurs working in constructions, draws stone ornaments for public buildings, sculpts friezes and draws funeral monuments.
In 1947, although he is very sick, he teaches the courses organised by the workers’ trade-unions. He draws ornamental strips and book illustrations. During the last years of his life he is helped by friends and former disciples. He dies in 1949 at the public hospital in Lovrin; he is buried in the same commune. His works of art are preserved in public and private collections in Timisoara, Cluj, Bucharest, Hungary and Germany.
