Zoltan Kiss (Zoltan Olcsai- Kiss) was a Hungarian sculptor born in Szalafő on November 4,1895. He died in Budapest, January 3, 1981. From 1914 on he studied at  the Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts . He studied sculpture with Várday  for a year. In 1915 for a few years he lived and worked  in Siberia.  In those years, Kiss organized a theater, where he designed props and painted the backgrounds. In 1919 he joined the  Hungarian Red Army soldiers and became a political officer. In 1921-1923 he lived and worked in Vienna and  Prague, along with  several other Hungarian émigrés (including Bernath Auréll ) and there he worked on various types of sculpture including ivory figures He worked further in this genre  in Paris, where he emigrated in 1923. He had a 1928 exhibition in Paris of various works such as porcelain ornaments and ceramic figures commissioned for the Sèvres Porcelain factory. Although he worked in Paris in the traditional fine arts for many years -- he reluctantly abandoned his studies and joined the more progressive art movements. He was a member of the Revolutionary Writers and Artists Association (Association des Écrivains et des Artistes Revolutionaires) - and he also worked for the organization. In 1945 he returned to Budapest. In 1946, he and other artists formed  the Free School of Fine Arts (also termed the  Buda Free School) , and while involved with them he took part in film-making between 1947 and 1949. At the Russian front in World War II he was taken prisoner. Between 1949-1951he taught in Csepel at an Arts School  and  then became a professor at the Hungarian Academy of Applied Arts. Olcsai Kiss won various prizes and awards: In 1953, the Munkácsy prize; In 1959 the Kossuth Prize, the Soviet Patriotic War Medal, in 1965 the Gold Medal of  Merit for Artistic Work, In 1969 amedal for artistic originality , 1970: the Liberation of Budapest Medal 25th anniversary, In 1978: Work Order of Merit of  the Red Flag, in 1980 the National Council of Trade Unions Medal.  In the 50s the Hungarian syte itself began to commison works. He worked on  the People's Stadium sports figure sculptures next to the  Kerepesi cemetary.  Other sculpture monuments depicted laborers such as the Martyr Memorial [Joseph Körner, Laszlo Peter] (1958-1959), an allegorical sculpture of three figures or Ludovika Councils Memorial Square Kun bas-relief sculpture (1966). Those national commisions also included various well-known personalities such as those  of Don Quixote (1970), the memory of the Hortobágy (1976) and in Bugyonni(1977), bas-relief plaque on the bridge. The impact of various works of spiritual masters and teachers (Maillol, Béla Uitz) can be seen in the works by Olscai Kiss. His works a emphasize a type of intellectual sophistication, with the formal  modeling characterized by expressive exaggerations most powerfully seen in public monuments by Olscai Kiss. (A typical example is the Kerepesi monument).

Solo Exhibitions
1928 • Galerie Zak, Paris
• 1973 Nagymaros
1975 • Kiss Gallery, Budapest • Szentes
1976 • • Nagytétény City Museum, Nyírbátor
1977 • Berzsenyi Library, Szombathely, Hungary (cat.)
1978 • Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest, Workshop C • High School series, Pilisvörösvár
1979 • Csepel Gallery, Budapest
• 1980 City Museum, Körmend (permanent exhibition until 1990)
1981 • Hungarian Workers' Movement Museum, Budapest (Exhibition)
1985 • Dürer's Hall, Budapest (Exhibition).

Selected Group Exhibitions
1951 • 2 Hungarian Fine Arts Exhibition, Art Gallery, Budapest • National Museum, Warsaw
• 1952 Spring Exhibition of the Art Gallery, Art Gallery, Budapest • Hungarian art exhibition, Bucharest • 3 Hungarian Fine Arts Exhibition, Kunsthalle, Budapest
1953, 1959, 1962 • 4, 7, 9 Hungarian Fine Arts Exhibition, Kunsthalle, Budapest
• Fine Arts in 1955 for ten years, Kunsthalle, Budapest
1957 • Hungarian revolutionary art, Kunsthalle, Budapest
• 1958 Exposition de Peinture, Sculpture, Arts graphiques et d'anglais ajourd'hui, Antwerp
• Fine Arts in 1960 after the liberation, the Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest • The Art of liberated Budapest, Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest
1965 • II. District artists exhibition, Radnóti Club, Budapest
1967 • I National Small Sculpture Biennial, Pécs
1969 • II. National Small Sculpture Biennial, Pécs
1970 • II. Debrecen, Hungary Summer Exhibition, Deri Museum, Debrecen
• 1971 Hunting Expo, Exhibition Hall, Budapest
• Collegium HUNGARICUM 1973, Vienna
1974 • Hungarian éremművészeti exhibition, The House of Hungarian Culture in Berlin
1985 • Arts, Szekszárd.

Public Works
Szerelőbrigád (aluminum, 1957, Budapest, Népstadion-szoborgaléria)
Dancing (bronze, 1957, Kazincbarcika, Béni Egressy Square)
Figural Fountain (1962, Ozd, Metallurgical Works)
Available work (bronze, 1966, Győr)
Béla Kun, Jenő Landler, Tibor Szamuely Memorial [Herczeg, Klára, Aladar Wolf] (limestone, bronze, 1967, Budapest, VIII. Distr., Kun space
Since 1993, the Statue Park Budatétényi)
Girls (limestone, 1968, Kéthely, Elementary School)
Charles Ligeti (portrédomborműves marble plaque, 1968, Budapest, XXI. Distr. Ligeti, Charles Street)
Szamuely by Tibor (limestone portrait, 1969, Nyíregyháza, Szamuely estate,?)
Don Quixote and Sancho Panza (pyrogranite, 1970, Budapest X. ker., Rottenbiller Park)
Liberation monument (stone, 1971, Marcali)
Lenin (bronze portrait, 1971, Tapolca, the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party City Commission)
Gereblyés Laszlo (bronze portrédombormű, 1974, Csákberény, House of Culture)
two relief (bronze, 1974, Budapest, Kerepesi Street Cemetery, Labor Movement Pantheon)
Don Quixote (pyrogranite, 1978, Budapest, Budapest International Fair)
Lenin (bronze, 1980, Nyíregyháza).

Works in public collections
Military History Museum, Budapest
Katona József Museum, Kecskemet
Museum of Contemporary Art / Ludwig Museum, Budapest
Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest
Modern Hungarian Art Gallery, Pécs.

Literature
Oelmacher A.: ~, műteremlátogatás, Műterem, 1958/6.
N. Pénzes É.: ~, Művészet, 1965/3.
Tóth A.: Budapest új emlékérmei, Budapest, 1970/2.
Geszti L.: ~ munkássága, Művészet, 1971/1.
Pogány Ö. G.: Kamarakiállítás ~ kisplasztikáiból és érmeiből (kat. bev., Szombathely, 1977)
Fekete M.: Prominent Hungarians, 1979
Theisler Gy.: Kilencven éve született ~, Művészet, 1985/11-12.
 Author (Papp, Gábor)

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