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

1963-06-01 / 6. szám

8

FRATERNITY

ALFONZ LENGYEL:

THE LIFE AND ART

OF

ALEXANDER FINTA

HUNGARIAN-AMERICAN SCULPTOR

Chapter IV

EMIGRATION TO BRAZIL

The short-sighted peace treaties at the end of World War I were drafted in disregard of the principles outlined in President Wilson’s Fourteen Points. The delegates at the peace conference failed to realize that by ruthlessly dismembering countries and casting them into economic poverty, they were creating conditions favorable to the spread of Communism. Such warning signs as the gradual consolidation of Bolshevik rule in Russia, the 133 days of Communist terror in Hungary in 1919, were completely disregarded.

Fully aware of the political and economic plight of his country, and foreseeing the catastrophe which one day would engulf Central Europe, Finta decided to emigrate. With his second wife, the batik artist Katalin Kantor, he went to Trieste and boarded a ship for Brazil. He was already a prominent artist in Hungary and left behind him countless portraits, memorials, reliefs and small sculptural works.

Brazil was then holding a competition for the post of director of sculpture for the exhibition to mark the centennial of Brazilian independence. Finta won the position with his granite statue, Strength, which now adorns the park of the Flu- minenci Club in Rio de Janeiro. He hammered the model for this 12-foot statue from a piece of lead.