Fraternity-Testvériség, 1963 (40. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1963-03-01 / 3. szám

FRATERNITY

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and therefore knows no bounds. Art, and its development, can only be boundless. The shallow artist merely makes patterns which, though they have some esthetic value, can never achieve lasting fame. The great talent, on the other hand, seeks always a new possibility, a new form of expression, and, never repeating, moves on towards immortality.

Flexibility, Finta believed, is needed to overcome limitations. Man should never allow his ideas to become ossified; he should never be the slave of his own habits. Whenever he feels it necessary to relinquish something to which he is attached, something which no longer meets his requirements, he must shed it without hesitation. There must always be progress. The new spirit of the time may appear somewhat vandalistic, but that can be modulated by the painter’s brush or the sculptor’s chisel.

The history of America made a deep impression on Alexander Finta. From the Revolutionary War rose a government and a constitution which welded colonists and immigrants together into a new nation with a unique and incredibly dynamic unity. That nation became a beacon of hope for others aspiring to liberty, for nations, too, need leaders. In Finta’s opinion, America’s qualifications for leadership rest in her strong national unity which has joined the sons of all other nations together. The immgirant, without denouncing the country of his origin or abandoning his memories and traditions, gains freedom, security, an equal opportunity to prosper; his son, reared in this environment, is completely American. All this Finta realized and expressed in his work.

Alexander Finta was teacher, ethnographer, writer and poet as well as artist. His book, Herdboy of Hungary, was published by Harper Brothers, serialized in and later approved bv the New York State Board of Education and included in the Public School Library Catalogue.

The honors he was awarded as a sculptor