Alexandre Kéléty - A rare Art Deco bronze statue , France circa
1925, depicting a dancer holding aloft a stylised scarf,
silver-plated and gilded, mounted on a patinated bronze base.
The only other example I have seen of this Art Deco sculpture is
decorating the office of P.I. Jake Gittes (played by Jack Nicholson)
in the 1974 film "Chinatown" (photo 7, lower right)
Alexandre Kéléty emigrated from Hungary to France at the
end of the First World War, where he was a student of the
Hungarian painter and engraver Imre Simay in Toulouse . He later
studied in Paris and his works often depicted animal and children,
but he also created Art Deco style busts and chryselephantine
statuettes of dancers and mythological figures in bronze, ivory,
marble or ceramic.
He exhibited several times at the Paris salons: At the Salon des
Société des Artistes Français in 1927, he showed a terracotta bust
and bronze and ivory figures in 1928 and 1930, all of which were
produced and published by Éditeur d'art Arthur Goldscheider . At
the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels
Moderne in 1925, his work was shown on both of the Goldscheider
and Edmond Etling stands. At the Paris World Exhibition in 1937,
he showed sculptures edited by Etling and Les Neveux de Jules
Lehmann , as well as animal sculptures made by M. Ollier.
Kéléty also incorporated the Art Deco style into everyday objects
he designed, such as electric lights, ashtrays and incense
burners.
