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

1963-03-01 / 3. szám

4

FRATERNITY

were unprecedented in the history of American art. His works won him 42 gold medals. His last prize was voted not by the jury but unanimously by his fellow exhibitors. He achieved the title “Hors Concours”, which ensured his lasting fame. In Paris, he was known as the Rodin of America, and one French art journal wrote of him as the most serious competitor of Parisian artists. “Qui commence a faire seriousement concurrence a notre vieux Paris.” La Revenue Moderne, 30 Oct. 1927.

Finta’s sculptures are guarded as treasures of American art in the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the Andersen Gallery in Washington, D. C., in many other cities in North and South America, and in several European museums. He produced many statues, carvings in wood and ivory, and etchings, most of which were lost during his years of roaming. (It will, incidentally, be extremely difficult for art historians to identify these works once they are found.)

I am aware of the difficulties I myself must face in writing of Alexander Finta. I have a triple obligation to fulfill. As a refugee sheltered in this country after six years in a Communist prison, I wish to show my gratitude by preparing the way for the friendship that must develop between the United States and Hungary, once my homeland is free. Hungary was the first Iron Curtain nation to shed her blood in evidence of our desire to adopt the American system of government as Louis Kossuth, leader of our earlier revolution of 1848, envisaged. In 1956, our cries were drowned in the tumult of the West’s own problems, but, as Finta, too, believed, the failure of the West to help in 1956, like the fact that Hungary’s geographical position has involved her in two wars on the enemy side, cannot prevent the friendship that will grow between Hungary and America. I shall be thankful if my work contributes to their understanding.

I am also obliged, from mv respect for the