Szilágyi András (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 18. (Budapest, 1999)

Diary of events

merited prizes and being put on display. (1

st Prize was won by Judit Pinviczki for her small furnitures, 2

nd Prize by Éva Kádasi for her coffee service and 3

rd Prize by Anna Pauli for the upholstery she had designed, while Tímea Virág for her reflecting raincoats - won the prize honouring the best object made for children.) The exhibition, which was open from December 11 until January 31, 1999, was organized by Elvira Király, with help from Aliz Torday. Within the framework of the exhibition a symposium entitled Form and Function was held on January 25 concerning the purpose of the competition, and the lessons that could be learnt from it. For many years the Museum has tried to offer visitors attractive and original ideas with regard to the selection, making and wrapping of Christmas presents. This is the intention which lies behind its Christmas events. On the first weekend families with children can enjoy a fair selling small but imaginative presents, as well as craft activities in which, under the guidance of applied artists, children can make Christmas decorations and gift wrappings. On the second weekend (December 11, 12 and 13), under the title Hand(i)Craft a fair featuring works by contemporary applied artists is held - by the Hungarian Fine and Applied Arts Association, the Society of Hungarian Ceramic Artists, the Hungarian Textile Artists' Section, and the Young Applied Artists' Studio. This event, the scene of which is the Museum's central hall, not fits in organically with "Artefacts in the Service of Man" exhibition on show in the downstairs gallery on three sides of the hall, but also gives visitors the opportunity to meet the exhibitors personally, and also to buy their works. At the György Rath Museum the György Rath Memorial Room opened to visitors in December. The former dining room of the Rath villa has been restored and the wartime damage made good. The original furniture consisted of different pieces side by side in the spirit of Historicism: an lS^-century English clock was built into wall-covering embellished with stamped leather inlays. In the room was a German cupboard made in the 1670s. The sideboard, table and twelve leather-covered chairs were designed by Albert Schickedanz. We have tried to fill gaps in the furnishings in such a way as to create as much as possible the original atmosphere of an upper-middle-class home at the beginning of the 20

th century. At the György Rath Museum the exhibition The Collecting of Oriental Art in Hungary As Reflected in the Collections of the Ferenc Hopp Museum of Eastern Asiatic Arts, Budapest was on display for the whole of 1997, having opened in June the previous year. This is the largest exhibition of Oriental Art to be held in Hungary for a decade. At the Ferenc Hopp Museum of Eastern Asiatic Arts Dr. Erzsébet Györgyi, an specialist in ethnography, opened the visiting exhibition Dolls of Japan on March 19. This was on display for a month, and resulted from co-operation between the Japan Foundation and the Museum. The specialist Eva Cseh contributed to the staging of the exhibition, and it was she who prepared the Hungarian text for the English-language leaflet illustrated with colour plates. On September 10 the a journalist Erzsébet Schäffer opened the exhibition Ladakh - The Land under High Passes displaying the photos taken by the photographer and artist Zoltán Szabó and some Ladakhian art objects arranged by the specialist Béla Kelényi. The artist published a catalogue bearing the same title as the exhibition itself. Judit Pataki