"ETIENNE HAJDU: Sculptures and drawings "
2001-04-18 until 2001-06-03
Fundação Arpad Szenes - Vieira da Silva
Lisbon, , PT Portugal

Etienne Hajdu (1907-1996) Hungarian born in Romania and naturalized French in 1930 arrived in Paris in 1927 where he had a classical training in sculpture and drawing with Bourdelle in the Grande Chaumière Academy. At the same time however he showed an interest in contemporary art, with special admiration for Léger and Brancusi. In the 30s he started his own formal figurative and abstract research and enhanced his knowledge of the materials which he would use in his sculptures.

Etienne Hajdu was very close to Arpad Szenes and Vieira da Silva, a friendship which began in 1930 when the couple frequented the surrealist youth group Les Amis du Monde, of which Hajdu was a member.

This exhibition, which is part of the cycle Friends of Arpad and Vieira, includes 11 sculptures and 6 large drawings which are extremely representative of his work. These works were chosen for this exhibition by Luce Hajdu, the artist’s widow, and by Patrick Bongers, Director of the Louis Carré and Cie Gallery to which all the works belong with the exception of two sculptures from private collections, one of which once belonged to Arpad Szenes and Vieira da Silva. The sculptures made from a variety of materials (marble, onyx, aluminium, slate, copper, bronze) date from between 1942 and 1992 and the large-scale drawings date from between 1978 and 1981 and include 3 studies for his impressive series Les Grandes Demoiselles. Drawing was a way of supporting his plastic art form where he experimented with light space, as he himself defined his research into light and shade. They are sculptors drawings where India ink emerges on a white background creating depth.

At 6.30 p.m. Etienne Hajdus sculpture Ouranos II (1957, bronze, 197 x 38 cm) will be shown for the first time in its new home, Jardim das Amoreiras. It was donated to the Arpad Szenes-Vieira da Silva Foundation by Luce Hajdu and in this way has fulfilled one of the authors wishes in memory of the great friendship which united them.

IMAGE:
Etienne Hajdu
Éclosion, 1990
Bronze
95 x 65 cm;
base 2,5 x 18 x 41 cm;
Tirage 1/3
Col. Galerie Louis Carré & Cie, Paris

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