Gyula Varosy was born on May 1, 1942, in Szombathely, Hungary. His mother was a school-teacher, his father an officer in the Hungarian Army. World War II was raging in its third year. Hungary, wedged between Germany and Russia, for historical circumstances, allied with Germany. As Hitler’s Russian front collapsed and the Red Army occupied Hungary towards the end of the war, his father, with the retreating army, surrendered in Germany to American forces. A repressive communist regime was established in Hungary by Russia, which meant “undesirable” elements, like ex-officers couldn’t return, If they did, severe persecution would await them.

As the “iron curtain” became solid and seemingly eternal, the family was forced to live apart, Mother and three young children, of which Gyula was the youngest stayed in Hungary, father, by way of POW and DP camps in Germany emigrated to the USA The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 gave the family the opportunity to rejoin. Having escaped the country to refugee-camps in Austria, the mother and children arrived and joined the father in Buffalo NY in the spring of 1957. Varosy was 14 years old.

With no initial knowledge of English, by the fall of 1957 he enrolled in high school and was on the honor roll by semester‘s end. The University of Buffalo Art Department ran a Saturday Art program for high school students, the Albright Art School. Gyula got the opportunity to join that program on scholarship, His creative talents were recognized and supported. His favorite teacher, a noted local painter, Dorothy Shea, guided him to Pratt Institute in New York.

Although his talent in the creative arts was clearly apparent, choosing a major proved to be a challenge. Art or architecture? After some soul-searching, Gyula decided on architecture, which is considered to be the “Mother of all Arts.”

He received his architectural degree with honors and was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to continue his studies in architecture at the Technishe Hochschule in Stuttgart, Germany. Art and architectural history were part of the program. Travel was a major component of this European year, which afforded Varosy the opportunity to take an emotional trip back to his native land for the first time in ten years to reconnect with family and friends, among them his childhood friend, Zsuzsa. They were married when he returned to Hungary two years later.

The year was interspersed with travels through Europe and North Africa. Even a trip to Moscow was included to get a first-hand impression of what he would refer to as “the capital of the communist misadventure” and “a controlled and drab environment.”

Returning from abroad, Varosy continued his education at Harvard, obtaining a Masters degree in architecture in 1968.

The couple moved to New York City, where Varosy worked at a number of ar­chitectural offices until he obtained his New York State professional license and opened his own practice.

Varosy’s marriage dissolved in 1973, which prompted a move to the SoHo dis­trict. He rented a loft in this newly developing art district at a time when the city was in a fiscal crisis and the neighborhood had not yet been gentrified. “I was on my own,” Varosy said. “I was a guerrilla.”

Although his work as an architect was an “adequate” pursuit for earning a living, working on public housing and community development projects with meager budgets proved to be very limiting in terms of design possibilities. Varosy found this prospect less than satisfactory spiritually and artistically and the vast space of his loft called for something more.

So while drafting tables, stools and a blueprint machine occupied one end of the loft, bags of plaster and piles of scrap steel began accumulating at the other end, along with a workbench, sculpting tools and welding equipment.

Sculpture became Varosy’s chosen medium as his creative spirit came to life. The physical aspect of the work, the weight and mass of it and the unique qualities of the materials appealed to him. He preferred the sculptural process - how it all comes to life through his own hands with all the decisions in the process his own - rather than his work as an architect where input from many determined the result.

The goal and focus were set, with a long, arduous route ahead.

By the late seventies SoHo had become the center of the New York art scene. As the area and lofts became more desirable, residential legalization of former industrial buildings had begun and artists living (illegally) in those buildings started to feel the squeeze. Varosy launched a lengthy legal battle to stay in the studio which limited his artistic activities but ended with the opportunity of purchasing the space outright, at a still-manageable price.

Soon afterwards, he met Hannie Eisma, also an artist, who became his wife-to-be. By 1990, Gyula Varosy was married and the father of two girls. The birth of their daughters prompted the Varosys to leave the city for a calmer and more reflective environment. They moved north to Greenwich, New York in a rural setting with the space and freedom to raise the girls and for Gyula to develop his art.

While continuing his work as an architect and design consultant, Varosy began the renovation of a rundown nineteenth-century barn on the newly-acquired property into an office/art studio/workshop. The old barn had its share of derelict treasures – boards and beams, windows and doors, knobs and latches – not in sets, not by the dozen, but unique, special items of quality and history, all waiting for a new context. It was this recognition that inspired him to design and build one-of-a-kind furniture, utilizing reclaimed material.

Varosy explains the appeal of this new-found material. “The board may be cracked, but the color and grain could not be matched, for the tree it came from sprouted over 300 years ago. There may be nail holes and marks on it, but somebody worked it 150 years ago and the slight sag or warp of an old door is forgiven.” Varosy’s intent was not historical reproduction in any way, but the creation of unique pieces of furniture, built with a personal construction method and aesthetic vocabulary that were like sculptures.

Building furniture, cabinets and tables as sculpture was the first step for Varosy in his new environment.

But inevitably, the figure began to reappear in Varosy’s work.

Wood remained the major material as Varosy would use a chisel “to find the story inside.” Sisyphus was found in some, images from mythology in others. There were horses, with and without riders, and some were simply figures. “I am drawn to the figure,” Varosy says. “It is central and ever-present. It can take many forms and enter many shapes, from the obvious to a most fleeting resonance, a gesture, an affinity, an association of forms and relationships that stirs something…”

By now, sculpture has became an almost full-time pursuit. It was also time for Varosy to start showing this new generation of work. His first exhibition was at the Schenectady Museum, as a participant in Art Fair ‘98. More exhibitions followed, both as solos and group shows. As his body of work continued to grow, Varosy decided to design and build a gallery of his own next to the studio. The new structure that he calls “a pole barn with an angle” opened in 2008. Varosy’s finished work could now be exhibited in a proper and appealing setting for collectors, curators and gallery owners to experience.

During the last three years a new shape, the cube, has emerged in Varosy’s work as a point of departure for his sculpture. Countless variations are now generated by this one returning shape. But all the issues that occupied and concerned him in his previous work reso­nate here as well. “The sculptures are all connected and reflect on one another, whether carved and constructed in wood, modeled in clay or plaster or cast in bronze, com­pleted today or 30 years ago,” Varosy says.

“It’s as if I am working on the same piece, trying to find a solution.”

Gyula Varosy passed away peacefully in his home surrounded by his family in May, 2023.