Born in Budapest, Hungary in 1946, Marte Szirmay arrived in New Zealand in 1957 as a refugee from the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. She studied at the University of Auckland Elam School of Art graduating in 1968 and Auckland Teachers College in 1969 and in the same year she won the Smirnoff Sculpture Award for a monumental outdoor piece in curved, polished aluminium in the busy centre of Newmarket, Auckland. An abstract sculptor, she exhibited at the Auckland Society of Arts, the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts in 1976, and The Group from 1971 to 1977. As an art teacher, she has taught at secondary level at various Auckland schools. From 1994 she was the principal lecturer in visual arts at the School of Art & Design, Manukua Institute of Technology in Auckland. Marte Szirmay was President of the New Zealand Society of Sculptors and Associates from 1977 to 1978, and again from 1985 to about 1989. In 1989, Szirmay was a founding member of the Medal Artists of New Zealand, a group which celebrates and champions the work of medal artists.
The total number of works by Marte Szirmay offered for sale by auction since 1989 is 67, of which 48 (72%) were sold. The highest price recorded for the artist is $5,472 for Cross Fire sold by Webb's in April 2007. No works have been offered for sale this year, and the last sale we have recorded for the artist was in 2023. Works by Marte Szirmay are held by the Museum Of New Zealand, Auckland Art Gallery and Christchurch Art Gallery.
Marte Szirmay is listed in the following standard biographical references:
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