Arnold Gross

Arnold Gross (Hungarian: Gross Arnold; 25 November 1929 - 22 January 2015) was a Romanian-born Hungarian graphic artist and painter known for richly detailed, hand-coloured etchings that depict a densely populated fairy-tale world of gardens, small towns and imaginary cities. Born in Turda in historical Transylvania, Romania, he became one of the best-known and most widely collected Hungarian graphic artists and was regarded as a renewer of the etching medium in Hungary. Gross received the Kossuth Prize, the Munkácsy Mihály Prize and the title Artist of the Nation, and from 1993 he was a member of the Széchenyi Academy of Literature and Arts. He died in Budapest on 22 January 2015.

Early life and education Gross was born on 25 November 1929 in Turda, Transylvania, in the Kingdom of Romania, to painter and drawing teacher Károly Gross and his wife Ilona Kovrig. Despite not having completed the secondary school, he was admitted to the Academy of Applied Arts in Budapest due to the strength of his portfolio.

Career From the mid-1950s, Gross began to exhibit regularly in Budapest and in Hungarian provincial galleries, showing paintings and increasingly his etchings and graphic works. In 1949 the graphics department on which he studied was transferred to the College of Fine Arts (Képzőművészeti Főiskola), where he graduated in 1953. The Arnoldo gallery regularly hosts exhibitions of his works and related cultural events, further contributing to the dissemination of his visual universe.

Artistic style and themes Gross became widely known for his copperplate etchings, which he coloured individually with a distinctive technique that ensured no two impressions were identical and which transformed the traditionally monochrome medium into brightly coloured, rhythmically structured images. His prints are characterised by fine, lace-like lines, dense ornamentation and a lack of empty space, with every part of the surface filled by figures, plants, architectural motifs and decorative details.