László Hunyadi is one of the defining figures of contemporary Transylvanian sculpture. Over a career spanning six decades, his work has achieved enduring significance in the fields of commemorative sculpture, monumental public sculpture, and small-scale sculpture (outdoor and indoor memorial plaques, reliefs, portraits, and busts). His work over the past quarter of a century has been outstanding not only in artistic and ideological terms but also in its sheer scope: through a sustained and coherent artistic programme, he has enriched his distinctive national pantheon, each year adding several identity-affirming works that seek to compensate for the deficit that historical and social circumstances (changes of sovereignty, the communist dictatorship, and forms of majoritarian domination) deepened in the region since the Treaty of Trianon. Some fifty of his public works have become sites of communal memory across many regions of Transylvania, while further works in Hungary and in other Hungarian-inhabited areas of the Carpathian Basin attest to the qualities of a sculpture that is profoundly human-centred, creatively engaged with tradition, and marked by a distinctive individual voice.
Hunyadi has become and remains an actively practising and widely respected leading figure of a gifted generation whose members spent their childhood in villages preserving traditional ways of life in Transylvania, where they absorbed almost instinctively and retained for life a respect for folk culture and traditional crafts, and for the dignity of craftsmanship. Folk art, together with the material culture and a system of motifs inherited from earlier generations, above all the material culture and motifs surrounding him in his native region along the river Târnava Mică (Kis-Küküllő), became an organic part of his value system. It thus comes as no surprise that, once his talent had been shaped and refined by outstanding masters (Dezső Bandi, András Bordi, István Barabás, Gábor Piskolti, and Márton Izsák in Târgu Mureș [Marosvásárhely], and later András Kós, Artúr Vetró, Jenő Szervátiusz, and Ion Irimescu at the university in Cluj [Kolozsvár]), providing him with thorough professional formation, technical expertise, and a broad intellectual horizon, he clearly aligned himself with the path of Bartók and Kodály. This orientation was further strengthened by his ongoing engagement with rural and peasant communities. Every phase of his career reflects this orientation, while also showing that he has remained attentive throughout to developments in the wider world of art, selectively incorporating into his own practice those elements he judged worthy, adapting them to his own creative aims. However, his oeuvre as a whole is defined by a deep attachment to roots, by fidelity to predecessors, and to the enduring ideas inherited from predecessors and passed on to contemporaries, and by a sustained commitment to a humanist, figurative, and realist approach. In this respect, the trajectory of his artistic development displays a strong sense of continuity and coherence; nevertheless, from his emergence in the 1950s to the present day, his career has comprised several clearly distinguishable and characteristic phases, despite frequent overlaps between different areas of activity. At certain periods, he was simultaneously engaged in multiple fields, producing sculptures, decorative metalwork, and jewellery side by side. Even today, he moves freely between genres and materials, guided by his own inclinations. Stone carving, for which he has always shown a particular affinity, was a medium he favoured especially in his younger years. Hunyadi worked in stone predominantly during the first ten to fifteen years of his career. However, as the dictatorship tightened its grip, opportunities for Hungarian sculptors in Transylvania became increasingly limited. Hunyadi had little choice but to turn to goldsmithing. Drawing on his knowledge of metalworking and immersing himself deeply in the long-established traditions of Transylvanian goldsmithing, over the next two decades, his artistic output consisted largely of a wide range of goldsmith works, repoussé pieces, and eventually jewellery of classical elegance. This period, described by the artist as an unduly prolonged interlude, came to an end with the regime change. The next period, which was marked by commissions befitting his exceptional abilities, truly crowned his career. The re-energised Hungarian community in Romania sought to seize the historical moment, to reclaim its symbolically erased public spaces, and to restore its destroyed monuments to their pedestals, and despite severe financial constraints, Hunyadi turned with renewed determination to the creation of public sculpture. With the passing of the major figures of the previous generation and the emigration of many promising younger sculptors, greater responsibilities fell upon those who remained in Transylvania. Renewed in purpose and energy, Hunyadi was able to devote himself to the work he felt called to undertake, and one after another, his monuments commemorating the greatest figures of Hungarian history and nationhood, as well as his memorials dedicated to decisive, identity-shaping historical events, were unveiled. In setting the standard for these works, he measured his work against the highest achievements of both Hungarian and universal historical sculpture, seeking to fill the long, enforced hiatus of nearly seven decades in a manner responsive to contemporary expectations. At the same time, he found the capacity and creative energy to considerably expand his seemingly inexhaustible series of reliefs and metal plaques portraying eminent figures, such as kings, princes, leading ecclesiastical figures, statesmen, writers, artists, and musicians.
The Bartókian approach to folk life and the folklore tradition, and their creative transfiguration, is more evident in the earlier phase of his oeuvre. This approach can be observed in his stone sculptures, metal works, repoussé pieces, and goldsmith’s works, thereby establishing a distinctive school in Transylvania. The great Hungarian composer Béla Bartók was an early source of inspiration for him, as evidenced by one of Hunyadi’s first major stone reliefs, Cantata profana, unveiled in 1968 near Sălard (Szalárd) in the Mureș (Maros) Valley. A year later, his limestone memorial dedicated to the poet Sándor Petőfi was erected at Ispánkút near Albești (Fehéregyháza), the traditionally identified site of the poet’s death. The monument has since become a widely visited site of commemoration, although it has been vandalised on several occasions. At present, the site includes a restored memorial, supplemented with a bronze relief executed by the sculptor János Gyarmathy. The marble bust portraying the painter Miklós Barabás (1970) is also frequently visited in Mărcușa (Kézdimárkosfalva). This work may have contributed to Hunyadi being described by a contemporary critic as “the sculptor of beautiful faces” [1]. Already in the early years of his career, Hunyadi had the opportunity to work in marble. He was still a student at the academy when he produced his first marble portrait, Kislányfej (Head of a Young Girl, 1957), a work of classical beauty depicting a lively girl from Țara Călatei (Kalotaszeg). This was followed by further works, including the marble funerary monuments to Róbert Nyilka and to Júlia Laczkó-Katona, erected in 1963 and 1964 in the cemetery of the Reformed church in Târgu Mureș (Marosvásárhely) and in the Cimitirul Central (Házsongárdi temető) in Cluj, respectively. He experimented with every material available to him. As he himself noted, marble was not his preferred medium: “it is too elegant, too bourgeois for me. I prefer more rustic, rougher types of stone. Yet you must understand the specific nature of each stone in order to shape it as you intend; every material must be approached with humility. [2]” Among the other marble, stone, terracotta, and patinated plaster works from this early phase of his career, marked by an unadorned sincerity and a sense of unpretentious humanity, the best known include Fiatalság (Youth), Korondi lány (Girl From Corund), Léány galambokkal (Girl With Doves), Család (Family), Menyecske (Young Wife), Egy színész portréja (Portrait of an Actor), Akt (Nude), Torzó (Torso), Fésülködő lány (Girl Combing Her Hair), and Ülő akt (Seated Nude). Among his widely known works located in the sculpture park at Lăzarea (Gyergyószárhegy) are two significant pieces: the composition inspired by the work of Elek Benedek (1976) and the basalt work A gyilkos tó legendája (The Legend of the Red Lake) (1977), both carved directly from solid blocks of stone, in keeping with his usual practice. The legend of the abducted girl embodies the struggle between good and evil, while the relief-like depiction of the popular storyteller Benedek and his heroes evoke Székely traditions and spirit of endurance.
Hunyadi’s enduring and symbolically charged sculptural presence is not confined to the artists’ colony at Lăzarea. Deeply committed to creative and professional exchange, he has long been a regular attendee at artists’ camps and symposia, taking part in numerous such gatherings over several decades. In Arcuș (Árkos), Hortobágy, Târgu Mureș, Zalaegerszeg, Joseni (Gyergyóalfalu), and Valea Boroș (Borospataka) in the Ghimeș (Gyimes) region, he made a substantial contribution to the collections of these artists’ colonies. In 1974, in one of the smaller areas of the castle park at Arcuș, he created a work that is atypical of his sculptural work. His monumental iron composition, Szimbólum a falu (Village Is a Symbol), fuses traditional tools and implements of rural life into a work of symbolic character articulated in a modern idiom. The sculpture also evokes the creative universe of his artist friend Viktor Román, who later achieved international recognition in Paris. Hunyadi subsequently produced a bronze portrait of the late colleague, which was installed in 2000 in the churchyard of the Unitarian church in Mărtiniș (Homoródszentmárton).
If, in terms of artistic conception, sculptural language, and compositional solutions, Symbol… may be regarded as a unique experiment within Hunyadi’s oeuvre, in terms of its material, it fits organically into the sculptor’s work of the 1970s and 1980s. In his study of Transylvanian artistic developments, the art historian Zoltán Banner succinctly yet comprehensively characterised this phase as follows [3]: “…as early as 1971, he turned to metal and to the practice of goldsmithing, focusing primarily on jewellery, while, even more resolutely than Fuhrmann, declaring war on precious metals and on elevated modes of representation. At first, he worked on large-scale commissions and applied works, developing a sophisticated sculptural language containing motifs aligned with Eastern, ancient, and so-called ‘barbarian’ traditions, and in this context, he forged his own markedly terse, simplified, materially concise system of signs (the iron and copper gate of the new theatre in Târgu Mureș, the chandelier of the marriage hall, the lamps of the Youth House, tinned zinc trays, reliefs, etc.). Later, necessity and circumstance narrowed the scope of his work to the smaller scale of alpaca-silver bracelets, fibulae, pendants, decorative bosses, and rings. Perhaps it is for this very reason that these miniature sculptures, modern in their elegance yet princely in their dignity, radiate such tension.” During his years of study, no specialisation in goldsmithing was yet available at the academy, and he had to acquire the requisite knowledge of metalworking on his own. He played a significant role in the revival and renewal of the most valuable traditions of Transylvanian goldsmithing, and several gifted younger artists began to engage seriously with this area of artistic practice inspired by his example. At the time, even the necessary tools were difficult to obtain; he had to make his own set of tools, including fifty or sixty chasing and repoussé tools of different sizes, along with other metalworking instruments. He developed an individual technique in metal repoussé, drawing inspiration from the practices of the Vikings. His later, widely appreciated series of portrait plaques was created using his unique method. As he himself explained: “For me, this is a favourable and straightforward technique: I model the face directly in the metal sheet. Such reliefs form a distinct category within sculptural practice. It is a three-dimensional mode of representation, but the third dimension is reduced. It forms a kind of transition between drawing and sculpture. By its very nature, it involves a degree of distortion, emphasising certain details while subduing others, thereby enhancing expressiveness [4].” Using this technique, over the course of several decades, he created a cycle of bronze and bronze-patinated plaster portrait plaques, remarkable for their sheer number. He portrayed historical and intellectual figures, and formative, exceptional personalities with whose convictions and ideals he identified. Among them are King Saint Stephen, Gábor Bethlen, Miklós Zrínyi, István Bocskai, Prince Báthory, Francis II Rákóczi, Kelemen Mikes, Sándor Petőfi, János Arany, Franz Liszt, Ferenc Erkel, Béla Bartók, and Zoltán Kodály, to name only a few. Writers, poets, and artists from Transylvania also inspired him: nearly all fifty-five members of the writers’ circle formed around the literary journal Erdélyi Helikon were commemorated by him in this form. Two volumes [5] attest to his sustained artistic commitment. At the initiative of local communities and through commissioned work, in several cases, he further developed these small-format plaques in sculptural terms, transforming them into large-scale bronze reliefs installed on exterior or interior walls at various commemorative sites. At the entrance to the castle at Brâncovenești (Marosvécs), the writer and patron János Kemény is commemorated in a relief; Albert Wass is similarly commemorated in the castle park there, as well as in Debrecen (2005) and in Budapest (Zugló, 2006). Further reliefs portray György Bözödi in Bezid (Bözöd), László Szabédi in Săbed (Szabéd), István Horváth in Ozd (Magyarózd), András Sütő and Dr. György Bernády in Târgu Mureș, the painter András Bordi in Idrifaia (Héderfája), and, in Budapest, at the Fiume Road Graveyard, the painter Árpád Vida (2012). This strand of his oeuvre became dominant in the decades following the fall of the Romanian communist dictatorship in 1989. From that point onwards, he came to receive an increasing number of commissions to create large-scale public sculptures. Nearly twenty works of this kind have been completed since then.
In 1990, his monumental work Agyagfalvi székely nemzetgyűlés és 1848 emlékműve (The Székely National Assembly of Lutița [Agyagfalva] and Memorial of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848) was unveiled. The realisation of the monument had been preceded by a long and difficult process, marked by prohibitions and repeated harassment. Following the death of the sculptor originally commissioned with the work, Béla Kulcsár of Târgu Mureș, Hunyadi and his younger associate Levente Kiss undertook to complete the sculptural ensemble, rethinking and modifying it in accordance with their own artistic conception. Between 1978 and 1980, they worked exclusively on this project. Despite constant interference and obstruction by the authorities, the monument, executed in rough-hewn stone, bronze, and reinforced concrete, was eventually completed and erected on a meadow at Lutița. The authorities prohibited the planned inscription, a passage drawn from the proclamation of the Székely National Assembly of 1848, from being placed on the pedestal, and did not permit an official unveiling of the monument. The unveiling finally took place on 14 October 1990. “The work possesses a force and emotional intensity attainable only by an artist of exceptional stature and talent. This sculpture carries great power,” wrote the respected sculptor Pál Kő about the sculpture [6]. The sculptural group of twelve figures, standing five metres high, was executed between 1977 and 1980 in travertine. The articulation of the composition, the typification of the figures, the handling and rhythmic vitality of the surface, the freedom of conception, and the formal language are all characterised by simplicity and breadth. From 1990 onwards, new unveilings occurred almost every year. He carved in stone the bust of the martyred Roman Catholic bishop Vilmos Apor, which was installed in the courtyard of the parish church within the castle of Sighișoara (Segesvár) in 1992. He also created a sculpture of the legendary Székely historical figure Balázs Orbán for the main square of Odorheiu Secuiesc (Székelyudvarhely). Reflecting on the full-length bronze statue, he said [7]: “My guiding principle was that Balázs Orbán deserved to have had a statue erected eighty or a hundred years ago. And the sculpture should capture both the historical perception of his figure and its enduring presence in cultural memory. I cannot conceive of his personality in modern terms, even though he was a modern individual in his own time, one of the greatest minds of the nineteenth century. However, he belonged to another age, having lived, struggled, and pursued his work a century and a half ago.” Unveiled in 1995 and imbued with a sense of timelessness, the statue creates the impression of long-standing presence, having become organically integrated into the urban landscape. In the same year, not far from this statue, another important work by Hunyadi was erected: the bronze bust of Bishop Áron Márton, a figure symbolising the unity and shared aspirations of the Hungarian community. Dignity, charisma, faith, kindness, and resolve are combined in this portrait. Hunyadi would subsequently receive several further commissions to produce bronze portraits of high-ranking church dignitaries. His standing statue of Lajos Haynald, archbishop of Kalocsa and bishop of Transylvania, also noted for his scholarly work, was installed in 2000 on the renowned Sculpture Promenade of Kalocsa. Despite its restraint, the statue conveys an imposing presence.
Around the year 2000, Hunyadi experienced an exceptionally productive period. His bronze statue of Sándor Petőfi was unveiled in Târgu Mureș, along with the bust of King Saint Stephen in Sâncraiu de Mureș (Marosszentkirály), and his public sculpture entitled Múzsa (The Muse) in Hajdúhadház. A devoted admirer of Petőfi, Hunyadi depicted the poet in five distinct creative phases over the course of his career. His most recent version was realised after winning a public competition. Departing from the Romantic pose and the idealised image of Petőfi, he dispensed with the familiar attributes, the sword, the cloak, the pen, and theatrical gestures. His full-length bronze portrayal presents an inward-looking, contemplative figure; yet, despite the folded arms, the figure as a whole conveys strength and resolve, revealing an energetic, free-willed, and action-ready personality. At various times throughout the year, the triangular square becomes a site where this presence is keenly felt, as crowds gather before the statue to pay their respects. A similar effect may be experienced in Kiskunfélegyháza, where a half-length version of the sculpture was erected in 2002 in the forecourt of the Petőfi Sándor Vocational Secondary School of Mechanical Engineering. Hunyadi had long planned to create a bronze bust of King Saint Stephen for the courtyard of the Reformed church in Sâncraiu de Mureș, which would later prove to be one of his finest works. In this work, only the most essential external attributes characteristic of the period are rendered; the symbol of Hungary’s thousand-year statehood and the symbol of the Church, the crown and the cross, serve their function with austere restraint. The artist deliberately avoids drawing attention away from the dignified beauty of the head, the harmony of the facial features, the furrows and lines of the brow that register inner struggle, and the wise, knowing gaze. Preserving the virtues of the portrait, while developing further the fuller, more complex image he carried within himself, the artist went on to create a full-length statue of King Saint Stephen. The bronze statue has stood near the Church of King Saint Stephen in Kiskunfélegyháza since 2005. It presents a figure of strength and dignity, whose confidence and steadfastness are conveyed to the viewer. Across time, it conveys a clear message: the sword, lowered to the ground, rests in peace yet remains ready for defence should the need arise. For there is much to defend: the country founded under the sign of the Cross. This is further emphasised by the orb held in the king’s left hand. It is equally evident that Hunyadi identifies with the values embodied by King Saint Stephen, and, as one touched by the Muses, he is able to transform his emotions and thoughts convincingly into sculptural form. This is also demonstrated by his public sculpture Muse. Conceived at the artists’ colony in Hortobágy, this work enriches Hajdúhadház with a graceful female figure. Depicted as a seated Erato, holding a book and imbued with a contemplative seriousness, she was offered to the local community by the sculptor. Balanced both in its details and in its ornamentation, a sense of mystery surrounds this white limestone work, which was carved from a single block with a high degree of technical mastery.
The memorial in Keszthely (2001) is also carved in stone. Characterised by an economy of sculptural means and a restrained structural clarity, the work nonetheless attains an elevated, solemn tone appropriate to its subject, commemorating the victims of the Second World War. The sacrifice of the fallen is evoked through the pain of those left behind. The sculptor placed the mourning widow and the orphaned child who clings to his mother’s leg in search of protection at the far end of the cobbled promenade of the Várkert (Castle Garden), beneath a Gothic arch surmounted by a cross. Within this cathartic vision, a glimmer of hope emerges: despite the losses endured, the child, symbol of a new generation, embodies continuity and the promise of the future.
Hunyadi’s later bronze busts, including those of bishop of the Reformed Church Kálmán Csiha (Érsemjén [Șimian], 2009) and Lajos Kossuth (Neaua [Havad], 2010), also present the affirmation of life, a commitment to humanist values, and faith in the enduring power of the national cultural. He has sought to transmit these values to his students in his capacity as an art educator, and they motivate his engagement in community life, particularly within professional associations of visual artists. The Kolozsvári testvérek-díj (Kolozsvári Brothers Prize) of the Transylvanian Hungarian Public Cultural Association (Erdélyi Magyar Közművelődési Egyesület, EMKE), the Koller Prize of the Hungarian Academy of Arts, and the Magyar Örökség Díj (Hungarian Heritage Award) are only a few of the many honours bestowed upon him.
References:
Ferenc Rosta, A szép arcú emberek alkotója, avagy a remény tárlata (lit. The Creator of the Fair-Faced, or the Exhibition of Hope), Félegyházi Közlöny, 15 November 2002
Miklós Kund Nagy and József Tarjányi, Hunyadi László művészete (lit. The Oeuvre of László Hunyadi), KÖZDOK, Budapest, 2006, p. 19
Zoltán Banner, Erdélyi magyar művészet a XX. században (lit. Hungarian Art in Transylvania in the Twentieth Century), Képzőművészeti Kiadó, Budapest, 1990, pp.154–155
Miklós Kund Nagy and József Tarjányi, Hunyadi László művészete (lit. The Oeuvre of László Hunyadi), KÖZDOK, Budapest, 2006, pp. 35–36
Miklós Kund Nagy (ed.), Helikoni arcképcsarnok I-II. (lit. Helikon Portraits I–II), Impress Kiadó, Târgu Mureș (Marosvásárhely), 1997
Pál Kő, Megkésett köszöntés, Hunyadi László 70 éves (lit. A Belated Salute: László Hunyadi at Seventy), Gödöllő, 14 May 2004
Miklós Kund Nagy, MŰterem. Beszélgetés huszonegy Maros megyei képzőművésszel (lit. Atelier: Conversations With Twenty-One Visual Artists From Mureș County), Impress Kiadó, Târgu Mureș (Marosvásárhely), 1998, p. 67