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*1907 Banica / Romania - †1965 Zürich / Switzerland

The Swiss artist Zoltan Kemeny was born in 1907 in Banica in Romania. After an apprenticeship as a carpenter in his home country, he studied architecture at the Ecole des Arts Decoratifs and painting at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Budapest from 1927 to 1931. Shortly afterwards he moved to Paris. Here he worked as a fashion illustrator and architectural artist. In 1942, Kemeny moved to Zurich, where he lived and worked until the end of his life in 1965. From 1950, Kemeny became increasingly famous as an artist and received numerous public commissions. From 1959-1964, he regularly took part in the Kassel Documenta and the Venice Biennale. In 1963, he was awarded the Grand Prize of the Biennale. In the same year, Kemeny was commissioned to create a ceiling sculpture for the Frankfurt theater foyer. The artwork shown here is a study for the modules of this ceiling sculpture.