31 Facts About Ervin Marton

Ervin Marton was a Franco-Hungarian artist and photographer who became an integral part of the Paris art culture beginning in 1937.

Ervin Marton's work was regularly exhibited in Paris during his lifetime, as well as in Budapest, London and Milan.

Together with numerous other Hungarians and immigrants, Marton joined the French Resistance during the Nazi occupation of Paris in World War II.

Ervin Marton was born in Budapest, Austria-Hungary, in 1912 to Istvan Preisz and his wife Janka Csillag, a Hungarian-Jewish couple.

Ervin Marton started drawing as a child; and as a teenager, he began to work in photography, although he never studied it formally.

Ervin Marton went on to Berlin, where he became friends with Brassai and other younger Hungarian artists and writers.

Ervin Marton studied at the Budapest Arts and Crafts Institute.

Ervin Marton was fascinated by the Roma, whom he drew, painted and photographed there.

Until 1946 and his father's death, Marton frequently signed his work using his father's name Preisz as a surname, or sometimes using Paal.

Ervin Marton became intrigued by the growing Esperanto movement and its concept that using one language would bring people together.

Ervin Marton accepted a commission for a series of stamps that celebrated Esperantist ideals.

In 1937, Ervin Marton moved to Paris, a center for artists and writers from across Europe and a refuge for Jews suffering anti-Semitism in their native lands of Germany and eastern Europe.

Ervin Marton became part of the vibrant circle of Hungarian emigre artists.

Ervin Marton took classes in painting and sculpture at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts.

Ervin Marton became connected to the writer Andor Nemeth and the painter Bertalan Por.

Ervin Marton was among numerous immigrants who joined the French Resistance, working in a small group with other Hungarians and foreigners, many of them Jewish.

In collaboration with the artist Jozsef Stremi, in the 1940s Ervin Marton created the design for a stamp to celebrate the poet Sandor Petofi, renowned for his role during the Hungarian Revolution of 1848.

Ervin Marton took part with Lajos Papp in several high-risk actions to prepare false documents for wanted persons and help them hide from the Nazis.

Ervin Marton made a graphic image for the Phenix, an underground pamphlet published in April 1944 by the Magyar Szemle, to commemorate the three Hungarians killed from the Manouchian Group.

Ervin Marton was able to protect much of Tihanyi's and his own early work through the war, helped by his friendships with Brassai and Boloni, who arranged for storage.

From 1944 to 1946, Ervin Marton worked with Boloni and Por in the reorganization of the Hungarian House, a cultural center for emigre artists.

Ervin Marton was invited to participate in many group exhibits, among which in 1947 were the Surrealist Exhibitions at the Galerie Maeght.

Ervin Marton was featured in solo shows: in 1948, the Galerie Palmes had a retrospective of his work.

From his work in the 1940s and 1950s, Ervin Marton is internationally known as one of the masters of street photography, capturing people in their daily lives.

Ervin Marton was a descendant of Moses Sofer in a long line of rabbis and their wives.

Ervin Marton's work was published internationally in US Camera and Travel ; Photography Year-book and Japanese publications.

Ervin Marton was selected as a photographer for the art catalog, Peintres Temoins de leur Temps.

On 30 April 1968, Ervin Marton died suddenly of a brain hemorrhage in Paris.

Ervin Marton was 55 years old and survived by his wife and two sons.

Ervin Marton's work has been collected by the Hungarian National Gallery, the Bibliotheque Nationale, private collectors and major corporations.

The museum is particularly interested in the Hungarian photographers such as Ervin Marton, who made international reputations while working in other countries.