Alex Domokos was born in 1921 in Hungary. At 18
he entered the military academy of Ludovika in Hungary where
he was encouraged to pick up some skill to offset his miliary
training. He chose sculpting and soon his early works would
receive the praise of his teachers. At the end of the WWII he
was captured by the Soviets and spent six years in their POW
camps working to repair the damages of war. His sculpting abilities
proved to be a tool for survival. In a camp in the high Caucuses
a team of professional Transylvanian wood-carvers introduced
Domokos to new carving skills, using the chisel, to create the
shapes for their needs. He was released and returned to Hungary
in 1951 but after the failed revolution of 1956 he was forced
to emigrate in Canada where he found a job as a sculptor for
a church supply company where he had permission to use the premises
after hours as his studio. Many of Domokos' statues were created
between 1960 and 1975. He considers the seven foot "Sacre
Coeur" plaster cast and the statue of "Freedom",
hollow cast in bronze, as the pinnacles of his achievements
in sculpting.
Alex Domokos is a most amazing man. He has not
only been practicing sculpting at best but is a versatile author
of poems, short stories, plays, essays and novels, as well as
an accomplished photographer and cinematographer. His most famous
autobiographical novels, "Prometeus" and "The
Price of Freedom" were highly acclaimed by the critics
and public. He currently has five books in publication in his
native Hungary and his works have been part of several Anthologies
of Canadian-Hungarian authors.
