Alexandre Kéléty

ALEXANDRE KÉLÉTY (Budapest, act. 1918 - 1940).
"Peacocks in love" and "Pair of pheasants".
Set of three bronze sculptures. The peacocks have been realized in silver bronze, base in black patinated bronze; The pheasants in silver bronze. Staggered bases in Portor marble the base of the pheasants.
Signed.
Measurements: 41 x 27 x 7 cm (peacocks) and 34 x 15 x 9 cm (pheasants).

Hungarian sculptor of the Art Deco period, Alexandre Kéléty emigrated to France in his youth and completed his training in Toulouse. He then moved to Paris to complete his studies and consolidate his knowledge. He made both sculptures and objects and was especially noted for his figures of animals, both exotic and European. He also made beautiful and elegant figurative sculptures representing athletes and dancers, although he also approached portraiture with a totally personal language. Today he is mainly represented in private collections.
Art Deco developed from the 1920s onwards, although it enjoyed a long life thanks to the popularity of cinema, which spread its aesthetics until the 1940s, almost completely covering the interwar period. The Déco aesthetic is, in a sense, an amalgam of many diverse styles and movements of the early twentieth century and, unlike Art Nouveau, was influenced by the early avant-garde, mainly Constructivism, Cubism, Futurism and even Bauhaus rationalism. The progressive archaeological discoveries in Ancient Egypt also left their mark on certain hard lines and the solidity of Art Deco forms. Likewise, as a machine-age style, it used the innovations of the times for its forms: the aerodynamic lines of modern aviation, electric lighting, marine cladding, skyscrapers, etc. These influences are reflected in designs of fractional, symmetrical and clearly geometrized forms. Nevertheless, it is fundamentally classical art, although it approaches classicism from a new perspective, based on archaeology and elementary aesthetic principles. Thus, the forms of Art Deco are idealized, balanced and proportioned, but at the same time synthetic and essential, far from the direct inspiration in nature of the late nineteenth century. Thus, in this work the movement and tension of the scene are captured to perfection, elements that are subordinated to the overall composition, integrating the various parts into the whole to achieve a harmonious and beautiful result, of great visual power.