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.”

György Fekete, president of MMA told that

„the committee made a decision which is professionally valid and equitable”.

Beside that he wished that the winners’

„creative activities light the ways of Hungarian art, both in our counry and all over the world.”

About the Artist of the Nation Award

The Artist of the Nation Awards are awarded by the president of MMA on the anniversary of the foundation of MMA on 5 November. The awards are handed over by the president of MMA and the prime minister, or two persons designated by them.

The assignment of the Artist of the Nation Awards is decided upon by the Artist of the Nation Committee consisting of eleven artists with the Kossuth State Awards. Two members of the Committee are asked by the minister for culture, while eight of them are called upon by the chair of the Committee, for the maximum of three years.

The awarded persons are given an official document on the assignment, entitled to borne the title of the Artist of the Nation, and receive an annuity from the month following the awarding ceremony. The monthly sum of the perpetuity is twenty-three times the minimal sum of the old age pension.

The Artist of the Nation award can be given to representatives from the following fields: theatre art, literature, music, fine art, film art, architecture, the art of dance, applied art, photography, folk art as well as circus art. The Kossuth State Award, and being at least 65 years old, is a requirement. Among the artists of dance and circus this number is only 50. The Title of the Artist of the Nation can only be borne by 70 persons at the same time.

After the ceremony of 2015 the committee could decide from which field they would lik to choose in case of vacancy. They always pay attention to have at least one awarded from every field.

The awarded person can be the Actor of the Nation, the Master of Hungarian Motion Picture, or the Master Artist of the Hungarian Opera House at the same time, but in this case he or she has to choose after which award he or she would like to get the perpetuity.

Photo: MTI

Copy editor: bm

Source: Origo.hu