Bela Bartok - Onslow Square, London, UK
N 51° 29.621 W 000° 10.429
30U E 696182 N 5708514
This statue of Bela Bartok stands a few seconds walk from the South Kensington underground station in Onsley Square.
Waymark Code: WMF15E
Location: London, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 08/05/2012
Views: 8
The statue has a height of approximatelt 2.2 metres, is of
bronze construction and is the work of Hungarian sculptor Imre Varga. It stands
on a plinth 1.5 x 1.5 x 0.25 metres made from granite. There is a stainless
steel mount between the plinth and statue that is decorated with leaves. The
mount has an inscription that reads:
"Bela Bartok
1881 - 1945
Hungarian
Composer"
The granite plinth also has "Bela Bartok" inscribed
on it.
The statue that is around life-size, shows Bartok wearing an
overcoat and trilby hat. He is looking directly ahead down Onslow Square.
Beneath the overcoat ca be seen a collar and tie. His hands are deep into his
overcoat pockets.
The IMDB website (visit link) carries a brief
biography of Bartok:
"Born in Hungary in 1881, Bartok began his musical
studies on the piano at age five. His mother was his first teacher; after his
father died in 1888, the Bartok family moved to Czechoslovakia, where Bela
continued his piano studies and took up composition. At age eleven, he made his
first public appearance, playing his own piano music. Bartok enrolled in the
Royal Academy of Music in Budapest. he made several tours of Europe after his
graduation in 1902. In 1940 Bartok moved to the United States to get away from
the Nazi expansion, and was given a teaching position at Columbia University in
New York City. With the exception of some noted musicians - conductor Serge
Koussevitzky and violinist Yehudi Menuhin in particular - he was generally
misunderstood and ignored by the musical establishment. He contracted leukemia
in the early 1940s, and died in the fall of 1945, unaware of the monumental
status he would achieve after death."