Joseph Csaky (1888-1971) [sculpteur hongrois, cubisme] - Lettre autographe signée - 1909

Rare letter from the famous sculptor and artist Csaky, probably from around 1909, when he was living in Paris. The letter is an invitation to an exhibition (likely one of his first), in which he requests that his name be written correctly: Csaky. He also mentions another artist, Claire Fargue, who is also a great artist.

Joseph Csaky was born in Szeged, Austria-Hungary, in 1888. At the age of fourteen, he entered the Higher School of Decorative Arts in Budapest. Disappointed, he left the institution after 18 months to improve his skills in modeling and direct carving on stone. He completed several commissions before moving to Paris in 1908.

Arriving in the capital, Csaky joined a workshop at La Ruche — a refuge for artists from Montparnasse — and from then on, he became part of the international community of artists of the Paris school.

An avant-garde cubist sculptor
Csaky began as an assistant to an art dealer and made molds for sculptors. He debuted at the Salon of the National Society of Fine Arts in 1910 with a female head whose academic craftsmanship announced his taste for streamlined lines with Cubist accents. In 1912, he exhibited at the first Salon of the Golden Section under the auspices of Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968) and alongside major artists such as Constantin Brancusi (1876-1957), Fernand Léger (1881-1955), and Francis Picabia (1879-1953). Subsequently, Csaky regularly participated in the Salon d’Automne and the Salon of the Independents between 1911 and 1923.

The Austro-Hungarian artist was one of the first sculptors, after Alexander Archipenko (1887-1964), to adapt the rules of cubist pictorial compositions to the three-dimensional format. His goal was to create works observable from all angles without having to walk around them.

Discharged in 1919, Joseph Csaky signed an exclusive contract with the dealer Léonce Rosenberg (1879-1947). An ardent supporter of Cubism, Rosenberg saw Csaky as a pioneer of modern sculpture. Recognized as part of the artistic elite, the Hungarian émigré participated in the exhibition 'The Masters of Cubism' at the Rosenberg gallery. His abstract compositions then consisted of juxtapositions of geometric elements similar to the works of Fernand Léger: cones, spheres, disks, etc.

Joseph Csaky's preferred themes initially focused on women and the human silhouette in general. But from 1923 onwards, the sculptor further explored the animal world while softening his approach to Cubism, which had previously been strongly angular.

Towards the decorative arts.
His meeting with decorator Marcel Coard (1889-1974) marked a turning point in his career. Csaky then began creating sculpted ornaments for furniture designed in collaboration.

In 1930, he participated — as a founding member — in the first exhibition of the Union of Modern Artists (U.A.M.) alongside Jean Prouvé (1901-1984), Charlotte Perriand (1903-1999), Le Corbusier (1887-1965), and Sonia Delaunay (1885-1979).

Csaky was commissioned in 1937 as part of the Universal Exhibition to design monumental pieces for the Pavilion of Elegance as well as the esplanade of the U.A.M. Pavilion.

During the last fifteen years of his life, Josef Csaky created works commissioned by the French state. He died in 1971 without having completed a design of nine Greek muses that were to adorn the façade of a building in Budapest.

Sotheby’s Paris auctioned Unique Tête (1923) for 925,500 euros in 2017, while New York sold a Lioness Head (circa 1923) for 150,000 dollars in 2019.

Letter in good condition (some foxing) by a very great artist!