Artists of the Nation Award winners 2016

Lajos Koltai cinemaphotographer, Károly Mécs actor, Ferenc Bán architect, Márton Kalász poet, author, interpreter, and Imre Varga sculptor got the Title of the Artist of the Nation, reports Origo.

The awards were handed over by Zoltán Balog, president of the Ministry of Human Recourses, and György Fekete, president of the Hungarian Academy of Arts (MMA) in Pesti Vigadó, on Thursday.

The Hungarian Parliament established the Artist of the Nation Awards on the initiative of the MMA, in 2013. The award is given to provide appropriate living conditions for personalities with high artistic accomplishment and reputation. The title was assigned to five artists by the Artist of the Nation Committee in 2016.

Lajos Koltai cinema photogapher, recipient of the Kossuth State Award, got the title in the category of film art, for his outstandingly rich oeuvre as a cinema photographer, in the field of Hungarian filmmaking.

Károly Mécs actor, recipient of the Kossuth State Award and member of the MMA, was awarded for his value creating forming of the classical figures of literature and his epoch-making performances in the field of film.

Márton Kalász author, poet, interpreter, recipient of the Kossuth State Award, member of the MMA, got the award for increasing contemporary Hungarian literature by his poetical oeuvre, and value creating translations of literary works.

Imre Varga Kossuth awarded sculptor deserved the title for his work in renewing the contemporary Hungarian statuary and the culture-historical importance of his monumental sculpture compositions, which renewed the classicist-realist ideal. Instead of Imre Varga, his son, Mátyás Varga took the award on Thursday.

Ferenc Bán, Kossuth Prize awarded architect, university teacher, member of the MMA was awarded for his progressive-minded life-work, which displays statuesque shapes, and can be interpreted as part of the contemporary architectural canon, as well as for his career as an educator, which helped to raise generations of architects.

Balog Zoltán told in his speech that

„today we acknowledge the artists, who became part of the nation’s treasury and the universal Hungarian remembrance, with their lives and works.”

He also said that

„we have to acknowledge the power of art and our artists again and again, but it should not only be recognized, but valued. The appreciation is not only empty words, as the awards come with serious annuity.”