Árpád Szenes

Arpad Szenes ( born May 6, 1897 in Budapest, Hungary, † 16 January 1985 in Paris, France ) was a Hungarian- French painter.

Arpad Szenes started painting very early. In 1918 he attended the " Free Academy " in Budapest, which practiced a progressive - liberal education. He was taken there familiar with the international contemporary art and the music of Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály and the work of the Constructivists Lajos Kassák. In 1922 he had his first exhibition at the " Musée Ernst" in Budapest.

Szenes traveled the most important cultural centers of Europe in his time, and finally settled in 1925, settled in Paris.

In 1929, he met Maria Helena Vieira da Silva at the " Académie de la Grande Chaumiere " know. The two married a year later, 1930.

In 1931, he began to deal with engraving work. He came together with the artists of surrealism, which his art had a great influence in this period. He was a member of the Association des Artistes et Écrivains révolutionnaires AEAR.

After the outbreak of World War II he emigrated together with Vieira da Silva in 1940 to Brazil. They lived there until 1947.

Arpad Szenes was one of the most important painters of the Ecole de Paris in the 1940s.

In the 1950s, dominated gouache and tempera works his work. He worked in his painting with the effect of light, the creation of atmosphere in the pictures and was inspired by the Japanese art.

Szenes worked with poets such as René Char and Claude Esteban, whose works he illustrated.

In 1956 he became a French nationality. Arpad Szenes took part in documenta II (1959) and Documenta III (1964 ) in Kassel. In the 1960s, his international reputation is permanently established as an artist.

He has had numerous exhibitions in France, Portugal and other countries, and was awarded, among others, with art prizes of the French state.