István Sándorfi

István Sándorfi (In France Étienne Sandorfi; 12 June 1948 – 26 December 2007) was a Hungarian hyperrealist painter.

Early life and career Istvan (known as Etienne) Sandorfi was born in Budapest in 1948. His father was director of the American company IBM in Hungary. Because of this association he served five years in prisons under the Communist leadership and his family was deported to an isolated Hungarian village. At the time of the 1956 uprising the Sandorfi family fled the country and became expatriates, first in Germany, then in France. Greatly affected by the violence of the revolution and by the aberration of political systems in general, Istvan took refuge in drawing and then, at the age of 12, in oil painting.

Art became his overriding passion to the detriment of his schooling. At the age of 17, while still in secondary school, Sandorfi had his first individual exhibition at a small gallery in Paris. After his second exhibition, in 1966, he gave up drawing to devote himself exclusively to painting.

In view of the morbid nature of his son's paintings and their lack of commercial success, Sandorfi's father enrolled Istvan at the School of Fine Arts, where he was to gain a degree, and at the School of Decorative Arts.

This, the family thought, would give him a more prestigious status than that of mere "artist". Gradually he achieved financial independence by accepting, along with the occasional sale of paintings, portrait commissions and few advertising illustrations. In 1973 Sandorfi had his first significant exhibition, at the Museum of Modern Art in Paris. Exhibitions were to follow in France, Germany, Belgium and finally the United States.

For about fifteen years he painted a series of large-scale self-portraits, sometimes told to be aggressive and theatrical in character, which gave him an ambiguous reputation with the public. It was written that he 'painted like an assassin'. From 1988 onwards the artist abandoned his disturbing images and began to concentrate and further elaborate on his technique.

Preferring exclusive contracts, less for financial reasons than to avoid the administrative aspects of his career and a professional milieu with which he couldn't identify, Sandorfi worked with the Beaubourg Gallery from 1974 to 1976, and then for seven years with the Isy Brachot Gallery. From 1984 to 1988 his work was exhibited in various galleries by a patron and collector and then handled by the Prazan-Fitoussi Gallery from 1990 to 1993.

From 1994 to 2001, his paintings were represented by the Jane Kahan Gallery in New York. Visceral and self-taught in work as in life, Sandorfi since childhood distrusted 'things learned' and remained true to his personal convictions. He preferred to paint at night, but each day went to bed later than the day before, thus living in a perpetual time lag, which sidelined him from any social life. Sandorfi reconciled this isolation with his family circle (he was the father of two girls, Ange and Eve) and his emotional life. From 2005 the Kalman Maklary Fine Arts represented Sandorfi, and in 2007 organized the first retrospective exhibition of the artist, with a monograph of his works.

Exhibitions

1966 - Galerie des Jeunes, Paris • Galerie de la Barbière, Le Barroux 1970 - Galerie 3+2, Paris 1973 - Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris 1974 - Galerie Daniel Gervis, Paris 1975 - Galerie Beaubourg, Paris 1976 - Bucholz Galerie, Munich 1977, 1980 - Galerie Isy Brachot, Brussels 1978, 1981, 1983 - Galerie Isy Brachot, Paris 1979 - FIAC, Galerie Isy Brachot, Paris 1981 - Galerie Isy Brachot, Basel 1982 - Amaury Taitinger Gallery, New York City 1984 - FIAC, Galerie Isy Brachot, Paris 1986 - Galerie Lavignes-Bastille, Paris - Galerie de Bellecour, Lyon 1987 - Lavignes-Bastille Gallery, Los Angeles - Hôtel de Ville, Nancy 1988 - Armory Show '88, Lavignes-Bastille Gallery, New York - Abbaye des Cordeliers, Châteauroux (retrospektív) - Louis K. Meisel Gallery, New York City - FIAC, Galerie Lavignes-Bastille, Paris 1991 - Galerie Prazan-Fitussi, Paris 1993 - Galerie Guénéguaud, Paris - Galerie Mann, Paris 1994, 1997 - Jane Kahan Gallery, New York City – Art Miami, Jane Kahan Gallery 1997 – Seattle Art Fair, Jane Kahan Gallery 1999 - Galerie Tempera, Brussels 1999-2000 - Gallerihuset, Copenhagen – The International 20th Century Arts Fair New York, Jane Kahan Gallery 2002 – Art Palm Beach, Jane Kahan Gallery 2006 - Kalman Makláry Fine Arts, Budapest 2007 - A test színeváltozása. Életműkiállítás, MODEM - Kalman Makláry Fine Arts, Debrecen - Los Angeles Art Show, Jane Kahan Gallery 2008 - Moscow World Fine Art Fair, Kalman Maklary Fine Arts, Jane Kahan Gallery 2008 - Haughton Art and Design Fair New York, Jane Kahan Gallery 2009, 2010 - Los Angeles Art Show, Jane Kahan Gallery 2010, 2011 - Haughton Art Antiques London, Jane Kahan Gallery 2010 - Kalman Makláry Fine Arts, Budapest 2010 - Haughton International Fine Art & Antiques Dealers Show, Jane Kahan Gallery 2011 - Kalman Makláry Fine Arts, Budapest 2014 - Kalman Makláry Fine Arts, Etienne Sandorfi Early drawings 1964 Budapest 2015 - Kalman Makláry Fine Arts, Csernus-Mehes-Sandorfi Budapest 2016 - #MEAM - Barcelona 2019 - Kalman Makláry Fine Arts, Budapest 2029 - #Hokimuseum in Japan.