Fraternity-Testvériség, 1963 (40. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1963-08-01 / 8. szám
8 FRATERNITY the keen mind capable of observing and describing nature with photographic precision. Characteristic of his writings are his clear style, sharp reasoning and vivid descriptions. He depicts his characters realistically, yet with moderation, without dwelling on the inferior nature of man. With his wife, Finta made the sculptural decorations for the 20th Century Fox film, “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”, taken from Victor Hugo’s novel. His wife, Katalin Kantor, had won the admiration of the art world with her batiks and her composition and technique in painting on velvet. However, not wishing to compete with her husband, she neglected her own work to help him attain his just place in the world of art. “One man”, Finta wrote, “can do very little against the whole civilization.”3 Working at a time when the art world was rife with many crosscurrents and fashions, Finta did not, I believe, gain the full recognition he deserves. I also believe that he was one of the outstanding artists of his time, that it is the duty of art historians today to lift the veil of obscurity from those artists who were not fully understood by their contemporary public. From what has been said so far the reader will have understood that Finta did not participate in the modern movement, the twentieth century revolution in taste. Though of the generation of Achipenko and Bracusi, he remained firmly and proudly in the tradition of Rodin, Hildebrand and the great schools of the past, preferring eclecticism to what he believed the delirium and deformation of the new manner. The penalty of his aloofness from the strident sloganry and exhibitionism of modernist ideology was obscurity and neglect, and the omission of his name from the records of modern art. Finta was not a reactionary; his temperaIbid.
