Biographical Information - Harold Balazs
The Spokane arts community is fortunate enough to have a myriad of talented local artists who love sharing their work with others. However, none are perhaps as well-known and loved as Harold Balazs. Balazs has created works of art for areas as far east as Ohio and as far north as Alaska, and has become such an iconic artist throughout the Inland Northwest that it's hard to believe he hasn’t lived here his entire life.
Harold Balazs was born on September 15, 1928 in Westlake, Ohio. He was first introduced to the art world at age 11, when his mother enrolled him in Saturday art class at the Cleveland Art Museum. These classes sparked Balazs' interest in creating his own works of art. A few years later, in 1941, Balazs created his first murals, which were dedicated to showing his support for the war effort. After graduating from high school in 1946, Balazs attended junior college in Chicago. That same year his family moved to Spokane, Washington; Balazs followed later that year and enrolled Washington State College (WSC; now WSU) in Pullman, Washington. In 1950, Balazs married Rosemary Schneider. During that same year he also sold his first work of art at a WSC student auction for a whopping $14.25.
In the spring of 1951, Harold Balazs graduated from WSC with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. One week later, on June 14, 1951, Harold and Rosemary's son, Kurt, was born. During this time Balazs began creating copper and enamel jewelry, which he consigned to regional gift shops, and started competing in juried art exhibits. In 1953, Harold and Rosemary opened a small gallery on Northwest Boulevard in Spokane. Three years later, on October 19, 1956, Harold and Rosemary welcomed twins, Erika and Andrea, to the family. Over the next few years, Balazs laid low professionally, allowing art to take a backseat to family life. Then, in 1964, he began collaborating with various architects to create doors, walls, spandrel panels, gates, windows, arches, sculptures, murals, church furniture, light fixtures, signs, and sundials for both private and public buildings.
In 1966, Balazs received the American Institute of Architects Gold Medal for Architectural Craft. In 1970, Balazs began working at Pioneer Enamel in Seattle. During this time he also carved bricks at Mutual Materials, in Newcastle, and at Mica, near Spokane. In 1974, Balazs created his Untitled "Lantern" sculpture near the opera house in the Riverfront Park area of Spokane, Washington. "Lantern" has become a favorite among those within the Spokane community and is one of the most popular pieces in the Spokane Sculpture Walk. During that same year, while recovering from a serious back injury inflicted while installing a sculpture for Expo '74, Balazs started painting watercolors again. Later that year Balazs started an affiliation with Gallery West in Portland, Oregon. In 1975, Balazs created a large enamel mural in the Kingdome in Seattle, Washington, which was later moved to the King County Administration Building after the Kingdome was demolished in 2000. The following year, Balazs created a large copper piece for the Federal Building in Seattle. In 1978, Balazs created one of Spokane's most well-known public art works: Centennial Sculpture. The stainless steel sculpture, which floats in the Spokane River, was created to commemorate the City of Spokane's centennial year in 1981.
From 1982 to 1994, Balazs worked on the following "Percent for Art" projects in Alaska: Moose Pass Fish Hatchery (near Seward), Douglas High School (Juneau), North Pole High School Sculpture Garden (North Pole), University of Alaska (Fairbanks), Joy Elementary School (Fairbanks), City-State Building (Sitka), Sheldon Jackson College (Sitka), Soldotna, Palmer Correctional Center, City of Petersburg, School of Medicine at the University of Alaska (Anchorage), Creekside Park Elementary School (Anchorage), and Lake Otis Elementary School (Anchorage).
In 1997 Balazs started showing his work at Art Spirit Gallery in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho with Steve Gibbs. Throughout the years 2000 and 2001, the Living Treasures video, Harold Balazs: Creating Wonder, was produced. In 2004, Balazs created Circle of Friends, a 16 foot diameter stainless steel sculpture dedicated to the class of '46 in Westlake, Ohio. In 2005, Balazs created the now iconic Rotary Fountain in Riverfront Park in Spokane, Washington. In 2009, Balazs was honored by the Seattle Metal Guild with their Lifetime Achievement Award.
At present, Harold Balazs lives in Mead, Washington, where he continues to cultivate his passion for art. In 2009 Balazs was quoted as saying "I am now in my eighty-first year and the only thing still clutched in my left hand is wonder. The rest, to quote Bob Dylan, is ‘blowin' in the wind’".
Bibliography
Balazs, Harold. Harold Balazs and Friends/ with a forward by Tom Kundig. 1st ed.
Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 2010. 147-150. Print.
Harold Balazs: Art is an Art Form. Spokane, WA: Cheney Cowles Museum, 1988. Print.
Other Information
The Art Spirit Gallery of Fine Art
Cascadia Weekly
Crosscut.com
The Enamel Arts Foundation
GIRVIN | Strategic Branding Blog
The Inlander
Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture (MAC)
The Spokesman-Review
