Biography
Sándor Ziffer was a Hungarian painter. He was an outstanding artist and art organizer of the second generation of the Nagybánya artist colony. He studied at the School of Arts in Budapest, then went to the Academy in Munich, where he studied with Hans-Joachim Raupp, and then visited the school of Anton Azbe. Simon Hollósy was his master at home from 1904.
In 1906, he visited Paris with his friend Béla Czóbel, from where he traveled to Nagybánya and painted in the artists' colony there. Returning to Munich, he opened a painting school, but this was short-lived due to the outbreak of the Second World War. He lived mainly in Berlin until 1918, but also visited Paris and Hamburg. He also presented his works at exhibitions in these cities. Finally, he settled in Nagybánya, where he became a teacher at the free school.
He absorbed the features of post-impressionist, then expressionist and cubist styles. He is one of the most significant artists of the Nagybánya Neos group. From 1908 to 1911, he was a member of the MIÉNK artist group led by Pál Szinyei Merse.
In 1918, he permanently settled in Nagybánya, where he taught from 1935 to 1945 and corrected the drawings and paintings of painting students. He was the master of many Hungarian and Romanian painters in Romania. Later he had an accident, after the Second World War he could only paint from the window of his studio.
Most of the Hungarian artists who stayed in Nagybánya lived in real poverty after the Second World War. Sándor Ziffer also found it difficult to gain social recognition. He died in Nagybánya in 1962 and was laid to rest in the Nagybánya cemetery.