The Life and Art of Edward Apt

"The Life and Art of Edward Apt" is a picture book biography of sculptor Edward Apt. It was researched and written by Kamill Apt and Wolf Sullivan in 2010 and 2011. The revised first edition of the book is available on the internet as an eBook from many retailers. A limited paper edition of the biography was available with the signatures of Ed, Kamill, and Wolf, but it has sold out. It is hoped that people who knew Ed Apt and read this book will contact the authors with information about Ed. This new information will be included in the second edition, which will also be published as a paper book. Contact Kamill Apt at aptkamill@shaw.ca and Wolf Sullivan at lonewolfsullivan@yahoo.com

click on the photos to enlarge them















The eBook is available from several online retailers, including Amazon:http://www.lulu.com/shop/wolf-sullivan/the-life-and-art-of-edward-apt/ebook/product-21391279.htm
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004YL6EBU

Here is a link to the book on Lulu.  It is in PDF format and displays the many photos better than Amazon:
http://www.lulu.com/shop/wolf-sullivan/the-life-and-art-of-edward-apt/ebook/product-21391279.html

Here is a link to the book's theme song "The Ballad of Ed Apt" by Lone Wolf Sullivan:
http://www.castmp3.com/index.php?t=mp&sg=4429">http://www.castmp3.com/index.php?t=mp&sg=4429">http://www.castmp3.com/index.php?t=mp&sg=4429

Excerpts from "The Life and Art of Edward Apt"

Gyulaj, Szekszárd, and Sopron

Edward Ernest Francis Apt (Ödön Ernö Ferenc Apt) was born on June 4, 1934 in the village of Gyulaj in Hungary. His father was a forestry engineer and entomologist named Edmund M. Apt (Ödön Máté Apt) who was born on January 30, 1901. His mother was Szandház Sarolta (Charlotte), born on October 9, 1908, and he had one brother named Kamill who was three years younger. Ed's parents were educated, enlightened, and open minded. His father managed the nearby forest administered by Prince Paul Esterházi (Pál Maria Alois Antal Miklós Victor), one of Hungary's wealthiest aristocrats. The crown estate wedged between 5 villages included agricultural land, and the 7000 acre forest produced wood and the deer population was popular with hunters from all over Europe. High ranking hunting guests including royalty frequented the estate.

The Apt's home on the estate in Gyulaj was a huge L-shaped building with a glass covered veranda around their house. A full bathroom, master bedroom, nursery room, chatting room, library, smoking room, dining room, and guestroom were interconnected, as well as individually accessible from the closed-in corridor. Indoor plumbing was a rarity in Gyulaj and so were bathrooms, but the Apts were almost the only residents in the village who had both.

Gyulaj is located in the SW part of Tolna County. The village is 122 km SW of the capital Budapest, 50 km NW of Szekszárd, and 20 km NE of Dombóvár. It is believed to have existed from at least the middle ages, and was originally named Gyula. Hungarians lived in Gyula and at one time southern Slavs from the Turkish occupation lived in Jováncza. In 1903 the official name of the village was changed from Gyula-Jováncza to Gyulaj. The all-Hungarian village had a population of about 2000. It is fairly isolated, but has relatively good ground and surface conditions with rolling hills and seven valleys, and its woods are packed with game.

THE HUNGARIAN REVOLUTION

With the younger generation in post-war and pre-Stalinist Hungary, there was a widespread fantasy of freeing Hungary from close to five hundred years of foreign occupation. It started with the Turks, followed by the Austrians, then the Germans, and finally the Russians. Ed and Kamill built little forts and underground hideouts where they kept pistols and ammunition that were strewn around, even a live hand grenade that they picked up at the end of the war. This was a period when the evening stories Ed told Kamill dealt mostly with this dream of liberation. Some stories Ed told were still the imaginary Lilliput people, their friends living in a forest. An ingenious lot they were, as their army was maneuvering to clear Hungary of the Soviet occupying forces.

It was a very serious situation for the kids, and they knew that if any of this got out, if any of their "armories" were found their fathers would be tried and almost certainly executed or exiled for life to the Soviet Union. Walter Lajos was privy to their secrets. After their high school years, the Apts moved and their contact with Lajos was lost. They knew he was drafted into the army, and simply posted to the ÁVO. But Lajos never divulged the secret. When the Revolution broke out in 1956 he immediately deserted and went home to his village, where the ecstatic locals, drunk on the sudden freedom and thirsty for revenge, beat him to death.

After grade school Ed's best friend Gábor Schneider was not admitted to middle school. His family was evicted from their vineyard, and they had move to Visegrád, a smaller city north of Budapest. Soon afterwards, in 1951, the Apts moved to Sopron. Ed enrolled in school, but was not a good student. He was sharp as a tack, but headstrong and refused to follow any rule he did not agree with. Half way through the last year, before matriculation, he was kicked out of school. Not for political reasons, but for his behavior.

A friend of the family hired him on as helper in the mechanical shop of the University of Sopron. It was a good match. He liked the work and they liked him. Ed got his chauffeur license, which came in very handy when he was drafted into the army. Before that he successfully applied to get back to school in Visegrád, where Gábor was also accepted. So after a year apart, they reunited and matriculated in a school run by Franciscan monks. It was one of the institutions the state ran to demonstrate the freedom of religion in a Socialist system.

BRITISH COLUMBIA

Edmund Apt was an internationally recognized entomologist (a zoologist who studies insects) and was invited to take over the Department of Entomology and Forest Protection of the University of Sopron in the late 1930's. He thanked them for the honour, but said he wanted to be a forest engineer, not a teacher. And so it stayed until continued harassment by the ÁVO forced him to take a "scientist" position in The Forest Science Research Institute in Sopron, not at the University.

The educational and social setting of pre-1940's Europe meant a university degree in science, medicine, law, education or engineering was an entry to the upper "Intellectual" class without any further differentiation by fields of studies. The normal process of selecting faculty members for university level teaching was to invite very experienced outstanding members of a profession to take over from a retired or simply tired professor.

Both Germany and Sweden would accept all enrolled Hungarian students to continue with their studies at Swedish and German institutions, after learning the language of course. A handful of students went for it. Then came an offer from Canada for the whole faculty to come, lock, stock and barrel. Students and faculty would continue with the Sopron Hungarian curriculum, gradually learn English, and obtain a Degree in Forestry from the University of British Columbia.

It was a very generous and tempting offer. And wise also, as it turned out. The faculty and the student body grabbed onto it, but there were some initial difficulties. There were only a few, but some professors decided not to leave Hungary, which created gaps in the teaching staff. Two gaps were Entomology and Forest Protection. Both were specialties of Ed's father. The faculty approached Ed's father to join UBC and teach the two subjects. However, after four years of teaching there was no guarantee, and at his age there was very little prospect for further employment. He thanked them for the offer, but said no.

Then another delegation came asking him to reconsider, for they said his joining or not joining was crucial to the success of the venture. He only took up teaching because the Sopron Faculty was stuck with no teaching staff in his field, and needed to complete its staff in order to function in Canada. After repeated requests from the exiled Sopron Faculty, he pondered some, then accepted to go and teach the Sopron group at UBC. That was sacrifice Number 2, leaving a well earned, prestigious position and a worry free life in a familiar world for a dive into the unknown at the deep end. Whatever you may think of the wisdom or sanity of the decision, to the Apts it was the natural decision in their system of values. To make a long story short, after some thinking Edmond joined. At the age of 56 he took a dive into a foggy future, into the last difficult but very interesting 35 years of his life.

For the Apt family it was good-bye homeland and good-bye Europe. The entire family pulled up anchor and emigrated to Canada and other places for a colorful half a century. They traveled by train from Vienna to Ostende, Belgium, then across the English Channel to Dover, England. After visiting London they went to Liverpool and boarded the RMS Empress of Britain shortly after midnight on New Year's Eve in 1956. The ship sailed on January 1, 1957 for Saint John, New Brunswick. The North Atlantic welcomed them with a spectacular hurricane, a 12 force wind on the Beaufort Scale which was steady from Ireland to the Bay of Fundy. It made the normally four day crossing take six and a half days. It was beautiful for them, the trip of a lifetime! Ed did not get seasick. Next they took a train to Abbotsford, B.C. and a month or so later went to Powell River, B.C.

SOUTH AMERICA

The Sopron Faculty of UBC was closed down when all the students finished, in the spring of 1961. That meant Ed's father was out of his job. He tried in several places but there was nothing for a 60 year old person who did not speak English perfectly. At the end of summer a colleague invited him to Colombia to teach Entomology at a newly developing university, which was false information. Ed's parents flew to Colombia in October of 1961. When it turned out that the university was non existent and the invitation was a bad joke, they were in a bind. They house sat and did all kind of things to not starve. Kamill sent them some money to survive.

Edmund then got a job in Medellin at an engineering firm called Integral, where Kamill also eventually worked. Some time later Edmund received an offer to teach Forestry Engineering at the Universidad Del Oriente in Jusepin,Venezuela. Kamill's future father-in-law Pál Tattay worked at Integral, and he met Csilla Krisztina Tattay this way. The Tattays were a Hungarian family. In 1962 the B.C. mine where Kamill was working closed down for the winter, so Kamill decided to go visit his parents for Christmas. He met Csilla two days after arriving in Colombia. It was Winter Solstice, December 21, 1962. One week later, on New Years Eve, he asked her to marry him. Kamill was hired by Integral, but he had to go back to Canada to get his affairs sorted out and wait for the working visa to Colombia. He worked in B.C. in a logging camp and a year later he went back to Colombia and decided on December 21, 1963 for the wedding date to Csilla.

Ed was living on Burrard St. at 6th Ave. and had enough of Vancouver, which at the time he considered barely more than an overgrown logging camp, culturally speaking. He wanted to live in a real city. Free as a bird, all his life he kept his movable assets to a bare minimum. So after obtaining a visa for Colombia on July 25, he just packed up and took a Super Constellation Prop Jet to Toronto in mid 1963. His escape from the oppressive money-centered North American way of thinking and perception of values was imminent for some time, and was triggered by his brother's wedding in Colombia. Ed spent a month or so in Toronto before leaving for Colombia.

In the 1960's Toronto was a large metropolitan city of almost 2,000,000 citizens, second in population to Montreal at the time. It was very English in heritage. Over 70% of the inhabitants were from England or of English descent. Toronto was a grey industrial city, quite conservative, once known as "Hogtown" but in the 1960's it was "Toronto the Good". For a bohemian like Ed, he would have enjoyed Gerrard St. Village, Toronto's version of Greenwich Village where Ernest Hemingway and other notables had lived. But Ed arrived just as it was being demolished to be replaced by parking lots. Torontonians are cold, conservative, cruel, cannibalistic, and despise bohemians.

Next Ed went to New York City, and then on to Miami on the edge of the Latin world with warm breezes, palm trees and a merrily gesticulating crowd chattering in Spanish. He took an Avianca plane that landed in Barranquilla. It wasn't necessary to leave the plane, but Ed could not wait to stand on South American soil. With a handful of people he walked the hundred metres toward the airport building. Just three steps on the very hot tarmac and he knew he made a mistake by leaving the air conditioned plane. But it was too late. Twenty minutes later, drenched in sweat, he re-boarded the plane. Lesson one learned.

With the snow capped Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountain range on the left and the Caribbean Sea behind, the plane headed south for Medellin, the city of eternal spring. About half a million people were living in peace and tranquility at 4000 feet above sea level. With the temperature rarely deviating from what could be considered "comfortable", dipping to maybe 15 degrees celsius at night and rising as high as 26 in the early afternoon, you could not ask for anything better.

Ed arrived in Medellin on September 18, 1963. He was an accomplished sculptor, a strong and free young man with no ties, full of energy, and ready to soak in and take on the world. Already fluent in three languages, adding Spanish to the list did not seem like a big deal to him. Ed traveled to Colombia with a regular immigrant visa, not a tourist visa, so he definitely contemplated settling in Latin America.

TORONTO

Ed lived for 18 months in South America and then had enough. He summarized his impressions of South America in some short notes he titled "I came, I saw, I remember": "During my stay I mingled, observed, worked, chatted, dated women, and mixed with different classes of people. I learned a lot, perhaps more than what I am inclined to broadly divulge, but here are some characteristics that in my view typifies a Latin American: unreliable, charming, mischievous and forgivable. My skin is deep-tanned, my nose and ears are red, nearly frost bit. The tan resulted from eighteen months of South American sunshine, the red from just a day in Toronto's winter. This contrast just about summarizes the differences between Canada and South America. The differences are deep, sometimes exciting, startling, or even frightening."

Decades later Ed said in an interview: "I was curious about this exotic place. The differences are deep and very exciting. The South American is like a child, cute but whose word is not to be trusted. If he promises something don't expect him to do it. He is always ready to joke and sing and dance, but underneath he is bitter. The lighter their skin color the more respected they are. Therefore if you want to be king go there, man. The women are gorgeous."

Ed left Maiquetia (Caracas) airport on March 24, 1965, flew to Miami, and arrived by bus at Windsor, Ontario on March 27, 1965. Next he moved on to Toronto, which had not changed much, although the metropolitan population had grown to about 2,500,000. It was the end of winter, which feels colder because of the humidity and the wind chill factor in this city with a humid continental climate. Winter temperatures tend to be in the -10°C (14°F) range. Summers are hot and humid, with temperatures ranging from 23°C (73°F) to 31°C (88°F). Spring and Fall are usually mild or cool with alternating dry and wet periods.

Ed found a home in the downtown area of the grey and conservative city. First he lived at 30 Sussex Ave. on the University of Toronto campus, in a house owned by Campus Co-op. Rent was about half of what was "market value" and perfect for a student. Ed continued to sculpt and have a good time as he explored Toronto.

In the Fall of 1966 Ed enrolled in the Furniture and Interior Design course at Ryerson University. It lasted from September 1965 until May 1966. He completed his 4th year of university education and passed all his exams, although he disliked Interior design which he considered "anti-art". Ed moved just around the corner from 30 Sussex Ave. to 400 Huron St. while studying at Ryerson. This house in midtown Toronto was also owned by the U of T's Campus Co-op.

Ed lived in many places, but always in the midtown area on the U of T campus and the Annex area close by. One reason was because there was a small Hungarian community in the nearby area on Bloor Street. An influx of Hungarian immigrants moved into the Annex neighbourhood after the Hungarian Revolution was suppressed, and many of the businesses and properties along Bloor St. were owned by Hungarian-Canadian families. From the early 1960's a number of small shops and restaurants lined the street between Bathurst St. and Spadina Ave. on Bloor St. Ed's favorite restaurants were the Korona, the Continental, and the Blue Cellar, which was very popular with students because of the inexpensive food. There was also the International, Country Style Hungarian Restaurant, and the huge Hungarian Castle with its impressive facade that resembled a castle. Also there were book stores, jewelry stores, a shoe store, and a few delicatessens that sold cured meats, cheese, sausages, ham, cold cuts, chicken, salads, pickled vegetables, dips, and breads.

One day Ed visited a Hungarian restaurant with his good friend Brian Williams. This one was just south of Bloor Street. Ed had a private conversation in Hungarian with the waiter. When Brian asked him about it, Ed said, "We were in the same prison together in Hungary."

RETURN TO BRITISH COLUMBIA

Ed Apt left Toronto for Vancouver in 1970 on his Jupiter 450 Ducati to be with his parents who were getting on with age and poor as church mice. He did not quite make 100 kms on the Trans Canada highway when his motorcycle broke down and had to betrucked back to Toronto to have the engine rebuilt. On the second try he made it through to Vancouver on the bike. Ed kept a low profile to focus on his sculpting, and Kamill corresponded with him through their parent's Keefer St. apartment address.

In 1970 Ed created "Downtown Goddess", a life size (7 feet tall standing) lightweight styrofoam sculpture of a naked woman sitting at a typewriter. It has a metal base and skeleton to give it strength. Individual small pieces of foam rubber were glued together with resin and wood to create the form. Then the shape was roughed out with files and rasps. Finally the finished surface was covered with fiberglass, soaked with resin (containing metallic dust), and painted gold. Ed wrote the recipe for "Downtown Goddess": "Rough it out in styrofoam, finish with a mixture of glue and dust. Glue can be any: household, plastic, etc. Dust well: sand, metal powder, etc. Stop the mixture's fluidity with adding some trixotropic agent, like asbestos. Spread it on styrofoam shapes with a dining knife. For a dull finish sandblast hardenened surfaces. Pieces can be joined with wood sticks or bits of wire, plus glue. Such sculptures are not resistant physically, but are waterproof, like paintings." He cautioned that it is "Waterproof but not vandal-proof." Ed donated the piece to the Sculptor's Society of British Columbia (SSBC) in the mid 1970's. It was on display in the Society's office on Granville Island in Vancouver until 1977. Then it was moved along with the Society's headquarters to the Federation of Canadian Artists Gallery at 1241 Cartwright St. in Vancouver. The SSBC is a tiny useless organization that cannot be contacted. Unfortunately, the fate of "Downtown Goddess" is unknown.

Leslie Peterson published a newspaper article about Ed's work and wrote: "She's the Downtown Goddess. She is stark naked, stands seven feet tall and she's a pretty classy chick – you can't have her for less than $2,500. The bronzed beauty is man-made, not heaven-sent, the creation of sculptor Edward Apt. Apt is best known for his School Girl which he created 10 years ago and sold to Mayor Tom Campbell. The lithe, girlish figure still waits for the bus in front of Campbell's Parkview Towers on Burrard."

When he created "Downtown Goddess" Ed was perplexed about why people asked him many questions about it, but not why he did it. He said: "I got my basic inspiration for her gazing at the immense Toronto Dominion building in Toronto. There was that enormous structure all full of typists and looking through the walls. I even saw through their clothes. After all, we were all born naked. Without clothes I could show the beauty of line of a young body. I think nakedness is the most dignified of all clothing and I wanted to make her dignified. Perhaps this is what the mini skirt is going to come to."

He also said she was a tribute to the unknown employee. "To me," he said, "the working person is a bit of a hero; it takes a certain strength to be a good worker." Ed believed the Women's Liberation movement was justified on a political level, but on a personal level he said, "It's a bit of a joke. I'm no despot, but I do believe in the double standard we are born with. I take the position of the artist. I don't consider him a god-like creature. I consider him an entertainer. Not necessarily an entertainer who always wants to please, for sometimes he must want to boggle his audience. We also need artists who want to shock, but I only occasionally try this."

Back to Hungary and Return to Canada

Kamill became tired of chasing the rainbow and retired at age 55. He went to Hungary in 1992 to see whether the water runs up or down the hill in that part of the world and to "observe where the old country and Europe is going". His daughter Kinga's wedding was in August the same year, and she and her husband Michael Menu looked after the house in Victoria. Attila, his massage therapist son also lived there. The Apts decided not to sell their Victoria house in case they didn't like Hungary and wanted to return to Canada. Kamill traveled to Hungary to begin looking after a vineyard he bought in Siklós, a town with a population of 10,000 in the Villány region. He was homesick for his country, and after an early retirement his pension was very little and could stretch further in Hungary which was less expensive.

Charlotte, Ed, and Csilla followed in October, after Kamill had organized the vineyard property. Ed did not want to go, but after some persuasion he relented with the condition that they move to Szekszárd, where he had good friends and pleasant memories. This made things a bit difficult because Kamill had already bought the vineyard in the town about 90 km away. He could not leave Ed and Charlotte there by themselves because neither of them could function independently, so Kamill and Csilla acceded to Ed's wish and bought a condominium for Ed and Charlotte in Szekszárd. It's a pretty little town of about 35,000 residents that produces some relatively good wine. Kamill and Csilla lived in Siklós spring to fall, then moved to Szekszárd in the winter.

In Szekszárd they had to adjust to the very cozy circumstances. Charlotte and Ed had a room of their own but Kamill and Csilla's room was also the living room, so privacy was insufficient. The flat was on the 8th floor, and toward the west they could see the town creeping up the hills where Edmond Apt's vineyard used to be. They began to enjoy life there when they brought their bikes from Siklós and went on tours every day that the weather was not too lousy. Usually they picked mushrooms which were feasted over at supper time. Also they brought back willow canes to make baskets and protective covers for the glass demijohns of wine. Kamill was invited on hunting trips and they had the pleasure of eating wild goose and elk on occasion. They became farmers during the summer months and hunters and gatherers during the autumn and winter. Csilla also taught a few English classes and attended a Toastmasters Club which a Peace Corps member organized. Once in a while they went to Budapest to visit relatives and explore the many beautiful museums and art galleries, or have a night at the opera.

Ed loved being in Hungary and enjoyed living in his old hometown of Szekszárd because people were more easy going and did not look at him as weird, but were friendly. In Canada people tended to fear and shun him. Slowly he found his old schoolmates and friends and sometimes visited them. The local newspaper ran an article on him in 1994. People recognized him and respected him for what he was, as he was. Ed gave some classes on conversational English for beginners.

He became involved with the local sculpting studio. The owner befriended Ed, and he was free to use the studio. Ed created several smaller works, mostly portrait reliefs and occasionally some sculptures. Some were as good as his works used to be before his accident.

In 1993 an interview with Ed was published in a local newspaper and included a photo of him posing with his sculpture "Study in Motion". The interview was titled "Confessions of a Master of the Art of Living". When questioned by the reporter named Mauthner about leaving Hungary in 1956 for political reasons although he was not political, Ed replied:

"Because there are many more things that are more interesting than politics, and when I left it wasn't for political reasons, either. I was 22 years old and was at the end of my stint in the army when the revolution began, and we were posted to defend the parliament. I saw how the tanks were shooting at innocent bypassers, therefore I had only one choice: I joined the insurgents. At the end of November 1956 my parents and I walked towards the border of Austria. About 200 students and a few professor joined us in Austria, and on December 31 we boarded the ship that was to take us to Canada."
____________________________©2011 Kamill Apt & Wolf Sullivan