SZEKELY Pierre

Born in Budapest in 1923, Pierre Szekely joined Hanna Dallos’ studio in 1941, where he learned drawing and graphic arts. Interned in a labor camp during the Second World War, he discovered direct stone carving, to which he would devote his entire life. After the liberation, Pierre and his wife Vera, who would also become a renowned artist, moved to Paris in 1947. In the following years, Pierre Szekely created his first sculptures, which pursued the surrealist logic of “the object with a poetic function”. La Naissance du monde, a sound sculpture created in 1956, perfectly illustrates this idea; it would be used by the young composer Pierre Henry to develop his sound library as part of his research into musique concrète. From 1959 onwards, he created numerous sculptures as well as monumental works – developments. He collaborated with architects on several important projects: the Beig Meil ​​leisure village with Henri Mouette, the Carmelite church of Saint-Saulve with Claude Guislain, a climbing sculpture in Évry, named La Dame du Lac. In 1966, he perfected his technique of flame carving granite. Szekely considers that his works are neither abstract nor figurative, but expressive: they are intended to be in harmony with the universe and with human nature. He was a member of the Espace group founded by André Bloc in 1951 and of the Groupe International d’Architecture Prospective (GIAP) founded by Michel Ragon in 1957. In this respect, Pierre Szekely called for a synthesis of the arts, which would remove the boundaries between architecture, painting and sculpture. A retrospective of his work was organized at the Hotel de la Monnaie in Paris in 1981. He died in Paris in 2001.