Visual art / Architecture & design
Géza Maróti
1875–1941 · sculptor, architect, applied artist
Hungarian sculptor and designer whom Eliel Saarinen brought to Detroit in 1927; he created the Fisher Building's arcade paintings and sculpture and the reliefs of Belle Isle's Livingstone Lighthouse.
- Born
Barsvörösvár, Kingdom of Hungary (now in Slovakia)- Died
Budapest, Hungary
aged 66- Birth name
- Rintel Géza
- Also known as
- Maróti Géza
- Detroit years
- 1927–1932
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
By the 1920s Maróti was one of Hungary's best-known decorative artists, with major work for Mexico City's Palacio de Bellas Artes behind him. At the invitation of Eliel Saarinen he came to the Detroit area in 1927 and stayed about five years. It was the height of Detroit's Art Deco building boom, and Maróti worked with Albert Kahn and other local architects. For the Fisher Building he designed sculpture and bronze work and painted the vaulted ceilings of the grand arcade. He designed the sculptural decoration of the Livingstone Memorial Lighthouse on Belle Isle and contributed sculpture to Cranbrook. He returned to Budapest in 1932 to teach, and died there in 1941.
Highlights
- Worked in the Detroit area from 1927 to 1932
- Ceiling paintings and sculpture of the Fisher Building (1928)
- Sculpture for the Livingstone Memorial Lighthouse on Belle Isle (1930)
- Works for Eliel Saarinen's Cranbrook campus
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 3
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Worked here · 1927–1928
Fisher Building
Albert Kahn's Art Deco skyscraper in New Center; Maróti painted the arcade ceilings and designed sculpture and bronze details.
Worked here · 1929–1930
William Livingstone Memorial Lighthouse
Marble Art Deco lighthouse at the east end of Belle Isle, designed by Albert Kahn with sculpture by Maróti; the only marble lighthouse in the United States.
Worked here · 1927–1932
Cranbrook Academy of Art
Saarinen's campus in Bloomfield Hills, for which Maróti made sculptural work.