Basil Rakoczi
Encyclopedia
Basil Ivan Rákóczi was an artist
born in London
. He was a prominent and leading member of the Irish art group, the White Stag
, along with Kenneth Hall
.
More recently, in the summer of 2005, his paintings were featured at the Irish Museum of Modern Art
along with other White Stag works in a successful exhibition. Further exhibitions are in planning at locations currently unknown.
He has art works in public collections across the globe including the University of Sussex, Derby City Art Gallery, Manchester City Art Gallery, Dublin's Trinity College, the Ulster Museum in Belfast, the Queensland Australia National Collection and Auckland City Art Gallery.
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
born in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. He was a prominent and leading member of the Irish art group, the White Stag
The White Stag group
The White Stag Group was a group of artists centred around the painters Basil Rakoczi and Kenneth Hall.Founded in London in 1935, the group moved to Ireland in 1939 and stayed until after the Second World War...
, along with Kenneth Hall
Kenneth Hall (artist)
Kenneth Hall was a British artist who co-founded The White Stag group with Basil Rakoczi.Born in Farnham, Surrey and educated at Lancing College, he was designing furniture in London before he showed his work to the dealer Lucy Wertheim who offered to put him on at show at her gallery in Mayfair...
.
Biography
Rákóczi was born on 31 May 1908 in Chelsea to Charlotte May Dobby and Ivan Rákóczi. His memories of his father rely mostly on fond reminiscences from his mother. Throughout his life he was proud of both his Irish heritage from his mother's side and his Hungarian heritage from his father's. He also held high regard for gypsy practices as his parents had been married in accordance to gypsy rites. Later in his life, he also rediscovered his Celtic roots.Autobiography
Basil Rakoczi also wrote an autobiography that details his life in an imaginative but frank and honest way. There are currently no planned publications of this autobiography though an official biography is rumoured to being worked upon.Style
His style varies greatly as he believed to explore psychological aspects of his work. A great many of his friends and contemporaries relied on psychology as a means of art and a number of his friends were members of the Society of Creative Psychology. As a result, his painting have a very mordernist yet unique style that is only repeated within the group he formed and ran, The White Stag. He primarily used oil and gouache as a medium but frequently worked with monotype and watercolour and ceramics for tile designs.Exhibitions and Public Collections
Basil Rákóczi's work has featured in over 150 exhibitions, of which more than 60 have been solo shows. His first commercial exhibition was in 1935 at the Artificer’s Guild in Cambridge and throughout his life, he had regular exhibitions at the Irish Museum of Living Art, the Royal Hibernian Academy and the Watercolour Society of Ireland.More recently, in the summer of 2005, his paintings were featured at the Irish Museum of Modern Art
Irish Museum of Modern Art
The Irish Museum of Modern Art also known as IMMA, is Ireland's leading national institution exhibiting and collecting modern and contemporary art. The museum opened in May 1991 and is located in Royal Hospital Kilmainham, a 17th-century building near Heuston Station to the west of Dublin's city...
along with other White Stag works in a successful exhibition. Further exhibitions are in planning at locations currently unknown.
He has art works in public collections across the globe including the University of Sussex, Derby City Art Gallery, Manchester City Art Gallery, Dublin's Trinity College, the Ulster Museum in Belfast, the Queensland Australia National Collection and Auckland City Art Gallery.