history of 19th and 20th century sculpture was subtitled "The adventure of modern sculpture".
It would be highly ahistorical to disregard these endeavours, either for the latter reason or for the lack of momentous traditions, whenever they did leave some lasting mark and were not mere empty sensation-mongering or teasing attacks against the general tastes. A quarter of a century after their creation, the official censure that László Szlávics's sculptures, pseudo-sculptures constructed from utensils, thrown-away machine parts bumped into then and for a long time during the nationwide reign of plastic commonplaces - though they were mostly conceived by the worker-sculptor and goldsmith in the "spirit of socialist ideals" reiterated by the regime to satiety - is hardly conceivable. These works were created by a master who sincerely professed these ideals with all his heart, who was brought up and lived in their sphere of attraction, and even as a mature artist-craftsman, he never abandoned the way of life he moulded as a gifted young worker struggling with matter to give it new shape.
While his fellow artistis with a great routine kept turning out their pathetic or bombastic works "imbued with the ideas of socialism" but remaining in the old rut of traditional sculptural approach, he - forced to small scale after his first unsuccessful attempts - put the authenticating stamp of personalness and self-reference upon these