Béla Bácsi

Available Work

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Biography

Béla Bácsi was born in Gyor, Hungary in 1950. At the age of six, he moved with his family to the United States. Continuing the family’s legacy as stone carvers, presently in its fifth generation, Bácsi took an interest in carving at an early age. Today, Béla Bácsi is recognized as perhaps one of three fine art marble artists in the world.

Raised in a family of artisans and essentially self-taught, in 1987, Bácsi gained employment at the Studio Ferdinando Palla in Pietrasanta, Italy, where he became an “ornamentista” or fine detail carver. Returning to the U.S. and settling in Cleveland, Ohio, he then worked as an architectural ornamental master designer at Fischer and Jirouch Architectural Ornamentation and as a bronze foundryman at the nationally acclaimed Studio Foundry. Eventually, Bácsi opened his own sculpture studio and now lives and works in Santa Barbara, California.

Béla Bácsi holds a California Community College's teaching certificate for adult education programs and has taught at Santa Barbara City College as well as at California Lutheran University where he was an adjunct faculty member in the Art Department. He continues to serve as an adviser to the Santa Barbara Museum of Art Docents’ Council.

Professional Memberships

Signature Artist Member, California Art Club; Fellow, National Sculpture Society

Selected Press

Newspapers & Magazines: American Art Collector (Sculpture), American Artist, Sculpture Review

Selected Achievements

2011
Gold Medal Award for Best Sculpture, California Art Club’s 100th Annual Gold Medal Juried Exhibition, held at Pasadena Museum of California Art

2007
Gold Medal Award for Best Sculpture, California Art Club’s 96th Annual Gold Medal Juried Exhibition, held at Pasadena Museum of California Art

2001
Gold Medal Award for Best Sculpture, California Art Club ‘s 91st Annual Gold Medal Juried Exhibition, held at Pasadena Museum of California Art

1999
Gold Medal and Maurice B. Hexter Prize, the National Sculpture Society Members’ Exhibition, held in New York City

Press and Publications

Béla Bácsi and Alexey Steele: Curiosity-The Inner Self

bela bacsi alexey steele southwest

Bela Bacsi and Alexey Steele Featured in Southwest Art Magazine October 2013 Issue

If everything about the world and ourselves were simple and known, there would be no wondering—and probably no art. But life comes tied with a big bow that invites curiosity, …

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with a wink and a smile

Bela Bacsi Featured in Sculpture Review Magazine Fall 2011 Issue

Béla Bácsi uses humor as an invitation to engage his sculptures. While some contemporary art can seem intimidating or esoteric to the viewer, Bácsi’s humor often suggests a kind of …

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September 2010: Bela Bacsi Wins Award for Outstanding Work

September 2010: Bela Bacsi Wins Award for Outstanding Work

Bela-Bacsi Driver of the Wheel

Bela Bacsi: Made Men, sculptors who revisit the classic male form in stone and bronze

July 2007: The figure in Bela Bacsi's "Driver of the Wheel" falls back into a circle of soft fabric belying the fact that the entire work is Italian marble. The solid corporeality of the figure and the flexibility of the fabric are entirely believable and invite us to suspend our disbelief.

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Bela Bacsi Octopus

Bela Bacsi: Building on a Legacy

July 2007: Members of the California Art Club are carrying on a legacy. They were descendants of the California Impressionist movement and are working to promote and expand their heritage.

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Bela Bacsi: California Art Club: 96th Annual Gold Medal Juried Exhibition Report

Bela Bacsi: California Art Club: 96th Annual Gold Medal Juried Exhibition Report

June 2007: California Art Club artists Peter Adams and Bela Bacsi were awarded Best of Show honors at the California Art Club's 96th annual Gold Medal Juried Exhibition at the Pasadena Museum of California Art on April 28. Bacsi, a sculpture and member of the National Sculpture Society, won the award for his marble sculpture, Octopus.

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Commissions

Artwork displayed on this page represents unique commission projects. If you are interested in commissioning an enduring and personalized work of art for public or private display, please contact us here for consultation.

    Studio Visit

    Béla Bácsi with BoxerBácsi took home the sculpture medal from the 91st Annual Gold Medal Juried Exhibition in 2001
    for his marble sculpture, Driver of the Wheel.