BORBEREKI-KOVACS, ZOLTAN (1907-1992)

**PRICE ON APPLICATION**
 
“Calla Lillies” (c.1950)
Oil on board
90 x 66cm
Signed lower right
*private collection, Perth
 
Borbereki-Kovacs was an important Hungarian Modernist painter & Cubist sculptor. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest under famous Hungarian painters, János Vaszary and István Csók. Focusing on fresco painting during his scholarship in Rome, Borbereki-Kovacs became a member of UME and worked frequently at the artists colony of Szolnok. He was awarded with the Grand Prix of the World Exhibition in Paris in 1937. He began working exclusively as a sculptor before moving to Johannesburg to pursue his art practice. His realistic sculptures express the ‘pure’ forms of compositions, generating a block-like aesthetic. Mastering stone sculpture, Borbereki-Kovacs started to explore bronze, wood and relief. Having moved to South Africa, his work was majorly influenced by the African native art, thus Borbereki-Kovacs’ work began to shift into an abstracted form and became cubist-like, both in sculpture and paintings. Borbereki-Kovacs’ rhythmic style and dynamic compositions along with his mastering of certain materials led his work to become simplified and a new take on figurative style.