Born in war-torn Budapest in 1945, István Dombrovszky was the most talented Hungarian sculptor of his generation. His trailblazing work which would have made him a superstar in New York in the 1980s and his uncompromising way of life has inspired many important artists who came of age in the 1960’s. Dombrovszky attended the Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts from 1964 to 1967, when he was expelled as much for artistic as for political reasons. From 1968 until his suicide in 1969, he did remarkable work in ceramics at the Hungarian Academy of Applied Arts. After his death, most of his exquisite sculptures were destroyed, and now the oeuvre, which truly marked an era, exists only in its traces: in the form of random sketches and models. But, by nature, his conceptual work such as the Inflatable Monument and the partially built Noah’s Ark on the Top Floor survived him, and gave Dombrovszky an almost mythological stature.