Béla Uitz (1887-1972) - Árkadiá

There is a very rare original print by the eminent Hungarian artist Béla Uitz from 1916 in the auction.

The painting shows a figurative composition with the motif 'Bather'. The title 'Árkadiá' refers to the idea derived from Greek myth of Arcadia since the Early Modern period, that life beyond social constraints is possible.

Labeling
Below the depiction, signed and dated in pencil "Bela Uitz 1916".

Dimensions: The sheet measures approx. 41.0 x 53.0 cm, the depiction approx. 23.5 x 34.5 cm.

state
Strong pressure on handmade paper with natural rag edges. The paper is aged, yellowed and soiled. Edges and corners partly bumped and creased. At the lower edge, creasing with a tear starting. The depiction is in good condition.

Provenance
The sheet comes from a private collection in Berlin, purchased at Galerie Irrgang Berlin.


Béla Uitz (born on March 8, 1887 in Mehala, Austria-Hungary; died on January 26, 1972 in Budapest) was a Hungarian painter.

Béla Uitz initially trained as a locksmith. From 1908 to 1912 he studied at the Budapest University of Fine Arts, and in 1914 he had his first participation in an exhibition in Budapest. Together with works by the group Die Acht (Nyolcak), his own works were also shipped to the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, for which he received a gold medal in 1915.

In 1915, together with his brother-in-law Lajos Kassák and Emil Szittya, he published the Hungarian avant-garde magazine A Tett (The Deed), which was banned by wartime censorship in 1917. Afterwards he was a co-editor of Kassák's magazine MA (Today) and participated in its third group exhibition in 1918. In 1917 he held an exhibition with Péter Dobrovics, Lajos Gulácsy, János Kmetty, and József Nemes Lampérth under the title A Fiatalok (The Young).

After the end of the war in 1918, he was one of the leading visual artists of the Hungarian Soviet Republic; he was a member of its Arts Directorate and head of the workshops for Proletarian Visual Arts, where propaganda posters were produced (Red Soldiers Forward!). After the suppression of the Soviet Republic, he was imprisoned for a time. After the fall of the Hungarian Soviet Republic in 1919, Uitz went into exile in Vienna with the Hungarian activist group, where he joined Kassák's circle and got to know new trends in international avant-garde art. In the spring of 1921 he traveled to Moscow, where he was fascinated by both contemporary Russian Constructivist art and the Orthodox churches, particularly icon art.
After his return to Vienna, he broke with Lajos Kassák and, together with Aladár Komját, founded the magazine Egység (Unity). Translation of Naum Gabo's Realist Manifesto, the program of the Constructivist group of Rodchenko and Stepanova, and the thoughts of Suprematism by Kazimir Malevich.

In 1923 he adopted the painting style of Proletkult and from 1924 in Paris he was active in the French Communist Party. In 1926 he relocated to the Soviet Union and worked there for more than forty years as an artist of Soviet propaganda art. Shortly before his death he returned to Hungary.