(b Budapest, 17 April 1904; d Budapest, 26 Jan 1986). Hungarian painter, illustrator, mosaicist, tapestry designer, stage designer, poster designer, printmaker, sculptor, teacher and administrator. From 1922 to 1929 he studied at the Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts (Magyar Kepzomüvészeti Foiskolá) in Budapest under Gyula Rudnay (1878–1957) and János Vaszary (1867–1939). In the mid-1920s he became acquainted with Béla Uitz’s General Ludd series (1923; Budapest, N.G.) and in Venice he saw the work of such Russian avant-garde artists as Rodchenko and El Lissitzky and such Italian Futurists as Severini. In 1926 in Paris he studied the works of Léger, Braque, Picasso and others in the collection of Léonce Rosenberg. He was also influenced by the art of Brancusi and Joseph Csáky, as well as André Breton’s Manifeste du surréalisme (Paris, 1924). From the outset, Hincz’s work revealed a number of different objectives. Although he experimented with abstraction, the reference to the figure is always present in one form or another. His profound interest in humanity and its social interaction was based on, and motivated by, this interest in the figure. His early paintings are expressionist in mood and are composed of flattened forms in a shallow space in a manner reminiscent of Cubo–Futurist art. Elements of Purism and Surrealism are also present. After World War II he became increasingly preoccupied with realism, political agitprop art and the problems inherent in creating new symbols; a study trip to Korea, China and Vietnam in 1947–8 provided him with new ideas. His history paintings, genre studies and portraits were inspired by the realistic art of the 1950s. He worked in a wide variety of media in the 1960s, producing large decorative works in the form of murals, paintings on glass and mosaics (e.g. Technology and Science, glass mosaic, 1970; Budapest, Tech. U. Bldg). His large tapestries (e.g. Science, 1967; Debrecen, Agric. Coll.) often combine symbolic forms and natural and illustrative details. As a stage designer, he was a Hungarian pioneer of the dynamic, emblematic theatre initiated by Russian artists. He was also a gifted poster designer, printmaker and sculptor and was one of the most important book illustrators in Hungary, executing drawings for the writings of such authors as François Villon and Anatole France. He taught (1946–9) at the Hungarian Academy of Crafts and Design (Magyar Iparmüvészeti Foiskolá) in Budapest and was its director from 1958 to 1963. He also taught (1949–63) at the Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest.