For many years this Jeddah sculptures was not attributed to François Kovacs. It was only thanks to a recent photo blog by a resident of the city (susiesbigadventure.blogspot.co.uk) that contact was made with the sculptor’s son, Dr Blaise Kovacs, and several works were conclusively identified as having been made by his father.
The sculptures by François Kovacs are strongly influenced by his career in medicine, and in particular his research into spongy bone structure. Many of them are based upon a system of ‘multifunction modules’: sections of cubes made according to constructivist principles and having their own aesthetic value. Through different alignments and superimpositions space is transformed, giving rise to an infinite variety of forms and perspectives.
There are other Sculptures in Jeddah that have now been attributed to François Kovacs. These include 'Family', 'Circle and Square', and 'Heart Cross Section'.
François Kovacs was born in Žepče in Bosnia (formerly Yugoslavia) in 1915. Aged 16 he started work as a sculptor of funerary monuments with his brother Ernö, learning the fundamental principles of sculpture such as modelling and working with marble. A few years later he studied painting and drawing in the studio of Tibor Gallé in Budapest.
In Hungary Kovacs also studied medicine until the Soviet invasion in 1956 forced him to make a new life in Belgium, where a highly successful career in medicine allowed him to devote his spare time to his art; he made regular trips to Italy to work with Carrara marble. His work can be seen in public collections in Belgium, Holland and Hungary, as well as in Jeddah. He died in Brussels in 2005.
