Gabor Peterdi was born September 17, 1915 in Pestújhely, a working-class suburb of Budapest. He grew up as an artistic prodigy encouraged by informal painting lessons at home. His parents, Andor Peterdi and Zseni Várnai, were poets; well-known, respected, and poor. In 1917, the family moved to Budapest; then in 1919, to Rozsadom [ ‘Hill of Roses’] in Buda, overlooking the city. Peterdi later wrote,
I spent ten important years of my life there … My intimate contact with nature, and our home filled with artworks stimulated me to start painting. Prominent artists, friends of my father, visited often, and gave me art supplies accompanied with casual information. Thus from the age of four until the age of fifteen, when I had my first one-man show, I received my informal art education.
Among those prominent artists was painter Gyula Rudnay [1878-1957]. Influential mentors were painter Rezső Balint and his art critic brother, Jenő. It was Jenő Balint who wrote the newspaper article that heralded Peterdi’s first show in 1930.
Resző had spent his youth in Paris where he knew Modigliani, Soutine, and others of their circle. He introduced me to avant-garde painting and instilled in me the desire that eventually drove me to Paris.
Peterdi’s academic education was grounded not in school, but in his parents’ library. Often truant, by age fourteen he had become something of an auto-didact, reading the great Russian and French authors as well as Shakespeare [in Hungarian translation]. By age 14, he was also reading art history privately in weekly sessions with Dr. Béla Lázár in his Ernst Museum reference library. In order to secure his future, he did study for a short time in the studio of painter Istvan Szőnyi at the Hungarian Academy and joined life drawing classes there. He spent that summer in an artists’ colony in Kecskemét. In October 1930, he exhibited 30 paintings in a one-man show at the Ernst Museum. With special dispensation, he was awarded a studio in the Hungarian Academy in Rome [Prix de Rome]. He left Hungary
GABOR PETERDI – Selected Honors and Awards
Graphic Prize, Brooklyn Artists Biennial 1950
American Color Print Society Annual 1951
Purchase Prize, Brooklyn Museum Print Annual 1952
Silvermine Prize, New England Annual 1953
Burndy Prize for Oil, New England Annual 1954
First Prize for Oil, New England Annual 1955
Purchase Prize, Brooklyn Museum Print Annual 1956
Purchase Prize, Oakland Museum Annual 1957
Honorable Mention, Pennsylvania Academy 1957
Graphic Prize, Boston Art Festival 1957
Sesnan Gold Medal for Oils 1958
R.M.Light Purchase Award, Boston Printmakers Prize 1959
First Prize, Assoc. of American Artists
Anniversary Print Competition 1959
Sonia Watter Prize 1960
Purchase Award, Seattle Art Museum 1960
Guest of Honor Award, Oakland Art Museum 1960
Adele Hyde Morrison Medal 1960
Ford Foundation Grant 1960
Northwest Printmakers Purchase Award 1960
Philadelphia Museum of Art Prize 1960
Purchase Award, Pasadena Museum of Modern Art 1960
Purchase Prize, Brooklyn Museum Annual 1960
Sonia Watter Prize 1960
Graphic Prize, Boston Arts Festival 1961
Pennell Memorial Medal 1961
Second Prize in Painting, New Canaan Art Festival 1961
Second Prize in Painting, Boston Art Festival 1961
Philadelphia Museum of Art Prize, Phila. Print Club
Ford Foundation Grant 1962
Honorary Member, Florentine Academy of Design 1963
Ford Grant/Artist in Residence, Jacksonville Museum of Art 1964
Guggenheim Fellowship 1964-65
Museum of Western Art Prize- Tokyo Bienniel 1965
Sonia Watter Prize 1965
Purchase Prize, National Print Exhibition, Kutztown 1966
Purchase Prize, Dulin Gallery-Knoxville, TN 1967
Purchase Prize, Honolulu Academy of Arts-National Biennial 1971
Purchase Prize, Museum of Anchorage, 1972
Purchase Prize, High Museum, National Print Exhibition, 1973
Purchase Prize, Honolulu Academy of Arts-National Biennial 1975
Purchase Prize, Childe Hassam Fund-American Academy/
Institute of Arts and Letters 1976
Fellow, American Academy in Rome 1977
Fairfield’s Artist of the Year 1985
Printmaker Emeritus – Southern Graphics Council 1987
Louise Nevelson Award, American Academy/
Institute of Arts and Letters 1991
SAGA Printmaker of the Year (with Will Barnet) 1997