1 00:00:04,000 --> 00:00:11,700 Ervin György Hollósy, or more commonly known, Gyuri creates pieces for this sculpture park next to Trenton, New Jersey. 2 00:00:11,800 --> 00:00:16,600 He is not the first artist in the family, his forefather on his mother's side is famous Hungarian painter Tivadar Csontváry Kosztka, 3 00:00:16,700 --> 00:00:19,400 And on his father's side Simon Hollósy, also a painter. 4 00:00:19,500 --> 00:00:23,900 Although he was born in Germany, and has only ever been to Hungary 3 times in his lifetime, 5 00:00:24,000 --> 00:00:27,400 His identity as a Hungarian still greatly defines both his life and art. 6 00:00:28,100 --> 00:00:31,800 Where we currently are is the so-called “Grounds For Sculpture.” 7 00:00:31,900 --> 00:00:36,200 It's an outdoor space for sculptures. 8 00:00:36,300 --> 00:00:41,800 There are approximately 500 works here on 42 acres. 9 00:00:41,900 --> 00:00:48,500 I have my studio in one of the buildings here, along with pieces by 20 other artists. 10 00:00:49,000 --> 00:00:53,500 Please do come in and check out my work. 11 00:00:55,200 --> 00:01:00,500 We look through different areas of his studio while talking about his life and work. 12 00:01:00,900 --> 00:01:08,000 As you come in, here is a picture of my father. I greet him every day. 13 00:01:08,100 --> 00:01:13,700 It's partly because he was the one who helped me become an artist. 14 00:01:14,600 --> 00:01:32,100 He didn't want me to be an artist, but he understood my feelings and then we also had the family connecion to it through Csontváry and Hollósy. 15 00:01:35,200 --> 00:01:45,300 The sculptor's parents got married during the war, his father fought at the battle of the bend of River Don when Gyuri's elder brother, who was still an infant, had died. 16 00:01:45,400 --> 00:01:54,400 When his father got injured he ended up in Austria and after that moved with his wife to Germany. Gyuri was born there. 17 00:01:55,000 --> 00:02:08,100 I have memories of living in Rabensburg or when my father was a program coordinator at Radio Free Europe, by that time we lived in Munich. 18 00:02:08,200 --> 00:02:17,100 I was 9 when we ended up moving to the States in 1955. 19 00:02:17,600 --> 00:02:19,700 The family settled in Cleveland. 20 00:02:20,000 --> 00:02:27,000 Gyuri spent his summers at a Piarist camp. That's where he decided to become an artist. 21 00:02:28,300 --> 00:02:35,700 I just wanted to be by myself. That was when they were building a new chapel. 22 00:02:35,800 --> 00:02:49,500 It was still fresh so I'd sit in one of the corners I mostly jus rested but sometimes also watched when one of the priests came out. 23 00:02:49,600 --> 00:03:05,000 He'd started to heat up these big metal rods and once they were hot enough started to move them on these big 1.5 meter long square columns. 24 00:03:05,100 --> 00:03:11,800 That burned the wood little by little. Everything was covered in smoke. 25 00:03:12,200 --> 00:03:16,000 I'd watched him and said this is what I want to do with my life, this is my purpose. 26 00:03:16,100 --> 00:03:17,300 That is where it all started. 27 00:03:18,700 --> 00:03:26,800 His first major work is a statue of József Mindszenthy who he even met with earlier in person, in Cleveland. 28 00:03:27,800 --> 00:03:34,900 I met Mindszenthy and was so shocked I immediately wanted to make a statue of him. 29 00:03:35,000 --> 00:03:49,500 I was nearly finished and the plan was to meet Mindszenthy at the Austrian border but he passed away. 30 00:03:49,600 --> 00:04:01,100 I continued the work into the night to finish it and then flew back to Cleveland with it. 31 00:04:02,000 --> 00:04:07,700 While working on this statue of Mindszenthy he found his unique artistic voice and way of working. 32 00:04:08,600 --> 00:04:23,900 There is a shape behind the clothes and I am able to make that shape out if there is movement. I wanted to make the statue of Mindszenthy using this. 33 00:04:24,000 --> 00:04:33,400 And then I started to work with this and with different combinations, my layering technique. 34 00:04:33,500 --> 00:04:47,000 At first there was ceramics. After that I worked with bronze and improved on the technique. 35 00:04:47,100 --> 00:04:56,500 A colleague saw me put the work into the forge and said it was reminiscent of armour. 36 00:04:56,600 --> 00:05:00,700 I looked at it and agreed. 37 00:05:00,800 --> 00:05:14,300 Ever since I was a child I liked armoury, I always stopped to look at those in museums. 38 00:05:14,400 --> 00:05:22,700 The main inspiration has always been figures, especially female figures because of the way they move, much more fluid. 39 00:05:22,800 --> 00:05:36,000 I never start with a concrete result in mind. No. I see the end result when it is finished. 40 00:05:36,900 --> 00:05:41,700 At another spot in his studio is where Gyuri showed me his technique. 41 00:05:42,800 --> 00:05:48,100 I have a sort of mystical approach to my work. 42 00:05:48,200 --> 00:05:53,000 This piece started as a small bronze piece on my desk. 43 00:05:53,100 --> 00:06:02,000 Once it had fallen off and rolled away so I picked it up and placed it securely to another spot. 44 00:06:02,100 --> 00:06:10,600 I'd started to work on the computer and suddenly it was again in front of me. 45 00:06:10,700 --> 00:06:20,100 I had again picked it up and put it back and it again fell off. This was already the 3rd time it had happened. 46 00:06:20,200 --> 00:06:27,400 I looked at it and thought to myself that this figure has business with me. 47 00:06:28,100 --> 00:06:44,600 This is how this exhibition started. Partly because I was already looking for forms where movement and balance work together. 48 00:06:45,400 --> 00:07:01,300 The piece I am currently working at has two figures meeting, like two people might meet. Both pieces are in balance. 49 00:07:02,300 --> 00:07:08,100 The form can stand in different positions and still remain in balance. 50 00:07:08,600 --> 00:07:14,200 And this works. It doesn't look like it's falling apart, does it? 51 00:07:14,300 --> 00:07:24,400 When I add different figures together I can create different compositions, it's not just a dance but a construction. 52 00:07:24,500 --> 00:07:33,600 And I can expand the size. What was once two, now can be seven or eight. 53 00:07:47,200 --> 00:07:50,500 Gyuri Hollósy is also the creator of the '56 memorial in Boston. 54 00:07:50,600 --> 00:07:56,100 We were standing beside a mockup of it while we talked about this piece and other works connected to Hungary. 55 00:07:57,000 --> 00:08:01,100 I told them that there won't be rifles present in my work. 56 00:08:01,600 --> 00:08:06,400 I also told them I want the piece to be rather symbolic. 57 00:08:06,500 --> 00:08:24,500 I put the woman into a kneeling position as an expression of her presenting the child to God as our hope and future. 58 00:08:25,000 --> 00:08:45,000 The soldier who is still standing and holding the flag even though he is missing part of one arm represents strength and the will to keep fighting. 59 00:08:45,100 --> 00:08:49,300 He looks to the child, to the future. 60 00:08:49,400 --> 00:08:58,100 On the original piece there are different portraits, including of Mindszenthy. 61 00:08:58,600 --> 00:09:10,700 Partly because it's a '56 memorial but also because he indirectly helped me to find my artistic voice. 62 00:09:10,800 --> 00:09:16,100 I used the so called layering technique I found while making his statue in this piece as well. 63 00:09:16,800 --> 00:09:21,700 I have a work that's dealing with a Hungarian theme in New Brunswick, that's also a '56 memorial. 64 00:09:22,200 --> 00:09:29,400 I also made a Hungarian installation in the Sunset Memorial Park near Cleveland. 65 00:09:29,700 --> 00:09:43,800 In that memorial there are 2 angels, one of them is the Angel of Peace which was modelled after my daughter who was 5 at the time, the other after her friend, Dana. 66 00:09:43,900 --> 00:09:51,600 There are statues of Árpád, Saint Stephen, a Turul bird all composed in a large space. 67 00:09:51,900 --> 00:10:06,600 This is how I preserve a sense of being Hungarian that I got from my parents with all the good memories. 68 00:10:07,100 --> 00:10:19,600 The Hungarian Gold Merit Cross prized artist's next work is of John Nash, Nobel-awarded mathematician. 69 00:10:19,900 --> 00:10:26,100 György Hollósy is hopeful that he will have the opportunity to make many more Hungarian themed works for the Hungarian-American community.