Submit a bio  

Artist Biography & Facts
Harold Balazs

Harold Balazs (1928 - 2017) was active/lived in Ohio.  Harold Balazs is known for Abstract design enameling.

Born in Westlake, Ohio in 1928, Harold Balazs took Saturday morning art classes at the Cleveland Museum of Art as a child.  Although in his early teens at the time, Balazs remembers being particularly impressed with two enamel panels by Edward Winter "in the stairway to art classes in the Cleveland art museum where I studied from 1938 to 1941."  Balazs realized at this early age: "I wanted to do to that some day - enamel!"

He went on to study painting and drawing at the Art Institute of Chicago and to receive a B.F.A. degree from Washington State University in 1951.  At WSU, the Czech-born artist George Laisner introduced him to the spare, geometric work of Bauhaus masters Gyorgy Kepes and Laszlo Moholy-Nagy.  Laisner also rekindled Balazs's early passion "by exposing us to a minimum of enameling."

After graduating, Balazs supported himself and his family by "freelancing at any and all things" including "making lots of enamel jewelry, bracelets, cuffli   ...  [Displaying 1000 of 2217 characters.]  Artist bio

Artist auction records

.  askART's database currently holds 52 auction lots for Harold Balazs (of which 46 auction records sold and 1 are upcoming at auction.)

Artist artworks for sale and wanted

.  There are 0 artworks for sale on our website by galleries and art dealers . There are 2 galleries and art dealers listing works of art by Harold Balazs as either "Wanted" or "For Sale" .

Research resources

.  askART lists Harold Balazs in 0 of its research Essays. Harold Balazs has 10 artist signature examples available in our database.

Similar artists

.  There are 8 similar (related) artists for Harold Balazs available:    David Shaner,  Robert Sperry,  Richard Marquis,  Richard Gilkey,  Paul Horiuchi,  Paul Havas,  Kenneth Callahan,  Dale Chihuly



Copyright © 1999-2024 askART.com and underlying auction houses. All Rights Reserved. Digital copying of these images and content strictly prohibited; violators will be subject to the law including the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Facts about Harold Balazs

Biography from the Archives of askART

Born in Westlake, Ohio in 1928, Harold Balazs took Saturday morning art classes at the Cleveland Museum of Art as a child.  Although in his early teens at the time, Balazs remembers being particularly impressed with two enamel panels by Edward Winter "in the stairway to art classes in the Cleveland art museum where I studied from 1938 to 1941."  Balazs realized at this early age: "I wanted to do to that some day - enamel!"

He went on to study painting and drawing at the Art Institute of Chicago and to receive a B.F.A. degree from Washington State University in 1951.  At WSU, the Czech-born artist George Laisner introduced him to the spare, geometric work of Bauhaus masters Gyorgy Kepes and Laszlo Moholy-Nagy.  Laisner also rekindled Balazs's early passion "by exposing us to a minimum of enameling."

After graduating, Balazs supported himself and his family by "freelancing at any and all things" including "making lots of enamel jewelry, bracelets, cufflinks, earrings, bowls and ashtrays."  However, in the early 1950s he also began to collaborate with several local architects creating doors, decorative panels, light fixtures, and furniture for churches, schools, libraries, and businesses throughout the region.  Thus, like the artist he admired as a child, much of the work Harold Balazs produced as a mature artist was designed for architectural application - including his enormously successful, vividly colored, and boldly graphic enamels.

For almost sixty years, Balazs has pursued with great enthusiasm his interest in diverse materials and formats - from beautifully designed enamel jewelry to large-scale concrete and metal sculpture.  His work, which is sometimes representational and sometimes abstract, is grounded in his love of the figure and of nature.

In 2010, Harold Balazs's contributions to the field were celebrated in a major retrospective exhibition organized by the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture in Spokane and in a monograph published by the University of Washington Press.

Source:
The Enamel Arts Foundation:
http://www.enamelarts.org/index.php?collection&action=view_artist&artist_id=50


** If you discover credit omissions or have additional information to add, please let us know at [email protected].

Share an image of the Artist: [email protected].
Top