Károly Ócsai (Újpest, 23 June 1938 - 22 December 2011) is a Munkácsy Mihály-award winning Hungarian sculptor, medal maker and art teacher. The expression of his sculptural art's unique form of language came to be as a result of his scientific crystallographic explorations, which speciality is distinguished in the peculiarity of his compositions and his handling of materials. The revelations he acquired during his scientific researches urged him to rethink and stretch the limits of already existing genres, and to create new ones.
Leaning 1967
◂ 1960'
Education
His affinity towards the artistic cognition of life resulted in him looking up ways of practising his artistic abilities early in his childhood, prior to starting institutional education, and throughout his studies. He studied painting between 1952 and 1954 with Lajos Szentiványi in the
Vasas Art Circle, and from 1954 to 1955 he was a pupil in Dezső Bokros-Birman’s studio. He studied sculpture between 1955 and 1957 at the Arts and Crafts Secondary School under József Somogyi.
Papillon I 1971
1970' ▸
Workplaces
Because of his participation in the 1956 uprising he was not allowed to go on to the Academy of Fine Arts. He tried jobs that would help his professional development. Between 1960 and 1963 he worked as a ceramic artist and a restorer at the Fine Arts Manufacturing Company; he was exhibition
organizer at the Museum Information Centre between 1964 and 1972. In 1963–1964 he was allowed to enter higher education and he studied at the Debrecen Teacher Training College.
Saturnalia 1981-82
◂ 1980'
From the first exhibition until 1989
After his first solo show in 1967 he was admitted to professional art organisations
including the Association of Young Artists (1968) and the Art Fund of the
Hungarian People’s Republic, as well as its
successor, the National
Association of Hungarian Creative Artists. From the 1970s onwards he
regularly contributed to major group exhibitions of contemporary Hungarian art. He received numerous
invitations to national and international symposia. In 1982 he became a member of the
Association of Hungarian Fine and Applied Artists, and later FIDEM. Between 1986 and 1996
he taught sculpture at the Kálmán Nádasdy School of Art.
Tabán 1956 Memorial 1996-2001
1990' ▸
After 1989
Thanks to the change of the political and social system in Hungary after 1989, some of his works
were erected in public spaces. Since then, the "1956 Tabán Memorial" and the Memorial of the
Tétényi Battle in the Castle park of Nagytétény have become important elements of Budapest's
cityscape. He was a member of Budafok local council between 1990 and 1994, and vice-
chairman of the Cultural Committee. He was a member of the Society of Hungarian
Scupltors from 1990. He joined the Pál Szinyei Merse Society in 1992 and the Sculptural
Drawing Society in 1996. Between 1990 and 2003 he and his wife Dr. Náda Neducza organised
the biennials and symposia of sculptural drawing (1–7).
English 
Hungarian