KEMENY, ZOLTAN

born March 21, 1907, Banica, Austria-Hungary [now in Hungary] died June 14, 1965, Zrich, Switz. Hungarian-born Swiss sculptor of dramatic metal reliefs. Kemeny was trained in cabinetmaking and architecture and worked for a time in fashion design. In his early reliefs, the coarseness of the materials (often scrap metal, wire, nails, and springs) contrasts sharply with his fluent sculptural style; images seem to grow and float on the surfaces. After experimenting with lead, zinc, tin, iron, and aluminum, Kemeny settled upon copper and brass as his major materials. He would structure each relief around a single constituent shape, which he then repeated in the work in many different sizes and variants. Will Energy Tension Creation (1958) is a major work, as is Metallo Magic (1963), a 360-foot-long brass panel suspended in the foyer of the Frankfurt Municipal Theatre. Kemeny lived in Paris from 1930 to 1940 and in Zrich from 1942. His reputation flowered after World War II, and he had numerous one-man exhibitions in major European cities. He was awarded first prize in sculpture at the Venice Biennale (1964), and a retrospective of his work was held in Paris in 1966 at the National Museum of Modern Art.