Endre Hevizi was born in Szeged, Hungary in 1924 and studied architecture at the Budapest University of Technology; after the Soviet occupation, he continued his training in Halle an der Saale, Germany. In order to find better professional opportunities, in 1946 he moved to England where he was initially employed as a labourer and then designer for the pottery firm of Booths and Colcloughs, based in Stoke-on-Trent. He subsequently moved to London where he worked as an architect and interior designer; he also produced paintings, mosaics, stained glass and bas-relief decorations, exhibiting his work frequently at the Drian Galleries, established by fellow émigré, Halima Nalecz.
Architect, painter and mosaicist Endre Odon Hevizi was born in Szeged, Hungary in 1924. Despite the outbreak of war, he studied Architecture at the Budapest University of Technology from 1942; however, when the Soviets reached Hungary, the university was evacuated and the students transferred to Halle an der Saale, Germany 'to build the new Europe' (interview with Endre Hévizi in Magyar Szó 2015); during his time there he taught Architectural History. Hevizi eventually managed to board a train to Denmark, where he spent several months in a Red Cross refugee camp and where he took up painting, initially producing portraits in monochrome, and later, oils in a post-impressionist style, sales of which enabled him to earn a living. Hevizi had numerous exhibitions in Denmark and Sweden from 1947–49. He set up a studio in Silkeborg, in Denmark where he was commissioned to decorate the interiors of a new cinema - a somewhat daunting task for a mere 22-year-old, self-taught painter. During his time in Denmark, he married the daughter of the local priest.
Hévizi heard that there were better opportunities in the art world in England and in 1946 he applied for a working visa, on the condition that he carried out physical work for one year after his arrival. With fellow Hungarian émigré artist, Gyula (Julian) Bajo, he was taken on as a labourer for the pottery firm of Booths and Colcloughs, in Stoke-on-Trent, the heart of the British Potteries. Hevezi initially transported blocks of clay manually; however, after showing his designs to one of the supervisors, he was transferred to the design department. During this time he probably produced the oil townscape depicting the bottle kiln chimneys towering above Stoke, which was offered at auction by Batemans in 2018. In 1951 Hevizi won a scholarship and the title ‘designer scholar’ awarded by the Federation of British Pottery Manufacturers, which enabled him to spend a few weeks in New York in 1947. Hevezi also collaborated with Bajo when the latter set up his own studio producing Bajo Ware, a range of tableware and ornaments with painted and printed decorations based on historical, mythological and modern themes. A catalogue entitled Decorative Art 1950-5 (Studio Publications, 1950) included a ‘Vase of the Evangelists, reminiscent of Byzantine and early-Christian bas-reliefs in ivory yet modern in colour and form’ by Hevezi and Bajo (Mosaic Mural by Bajo and Hevezi, Freston website). Hevezi subsequently settled in London and became a naturalised a British subject in 1956. Hevizi enrolled on a Master's programme at London University (1956–58), where his interior designs were highly praised by one of his professors who helped him secure commissions. He mainly worked in murals and interior design and also produced bas-relief decorations for housing estates which are still extant today.
Between 1963 and 1964 Hevizi collaborated with Bajo on the mosaic Harvest decorating the rear of the Co-op building on Cox Lane, Ipswich, Suffolk. Completed by spring 1965, stretching 3m tall and 9m wide, it was a stylised and colourful abstract representation of the theme of co-operation based around a female figure holding a wheatsheaf. The mosaic is one of only four surviving large-scale English co-op murals from the 1950s and 1960s, along with those at Stevenage in Hertfordshire (by Bajo, 1957–8), Hull (1961–3) and Scunthorpe (1963) (Pearson, 'Building of the Month'). Hevezi and Bajo also produced decorative designs for the Greek State Tourist Office on Regents Street in central London. The Co-operative Wholesale Society Architects Department (CWSAD) commissioned a series of mosaics and stained glass from the duo for a new Coptic monastery at Debra Libanos near Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, which they completed in 1965. The largest mosaics ever made in England up to that time (they covered more 600 square feet), they were described as ‘one of the most striking pieces of religious craftsmanship to have been made in England for a long time’ (Illustrated London News 1965, p. 22). Hevizi and Bajo followed the early Medieval tradition of mosaic making and spent months looking for the exact shades of mosaic glass which they imported from Sweden, Italy, Greece and Turkey. Before they were cut up into sections and shipped to Ethiopia, the mosaics were shown at the Royal Festival Hall, London in 1965. Hevezi’s religious works included a set of ceramic panels symbolizing the Stations of the Cross at the catholic church of Hartley Witney, Hampshire, and 12 wall panels of Eucharist symbols at the Allan Hall Catholic Seminary in Chelsea.
From 1969, Hevizi exhibited frequently at émigré Halima Nalecz’s Drian Galleries in London. In later life he retired from large-scale commissions to take care of his wife after she suffered a stroke, which he did for 20 years, until her death. Nevertheless, he never stopped painting and working on reliefs. A founding member of the British Society of Enamellers, he won first prize with his vitrified enamel pictures at the biennale of La Cruna (1988) and Madrid (1998), and a prize in Budapest (2001). Endre Hevezi died in London, England in 2017. His work is not currently held in any UK public collections but examples of his mosaics can be viewed in the built environment, as described above.
Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Endre Hevizi]
Publications related to [Endre Hevizi] in the Ben Uri Library