Szilágyi András (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 19. (Budapest, 2000)

Diary of Exhibitions

individual artists - also served to illuminate the exhibition itself. The harpist Eva Maros, the trumpeter György Geiger, and the Hungarian State Opera House singer Etelka Csavlek (a ceramic artist herself) all performed at the festive opening, at which the address was given by Dr. József Pál, deputy state secretary at the Ministry of Cultural Heritage responsible for artistic and international ties. The programme was augmented by a number of specialist conferences: on June 28 "Artists, Manufactures, Factories" looked at the fortunes of Hungarian porcelain factories, workshops, designers, and designs; on August 30 "The Art Trade and Art Collecting from the Ceramics Viewpoint" gave a comprehensive survey of the art trade in Hungary; and finally on September 13 a gathering attended by speakers from Hungary and abroad discussed the various levels of, and opportunities for, ceramics teaching. The series of events was officially brought to a close by a concert on September 11. For some years the Museum of Applied Arts has hosted exhibitions staged by Katalin E. Nagy and Agnes T. Balázsy using diploma assignments completed by final-year students of restoration. Rescued Art Works '99 was, unusually, not just a display of such assignments, but was at the same time a jubilee celebration: it also offered a selection of documents on twenty-five years of university training in artefact restoration, simultaneously throwing light on the most remarkable achievements of the period. At the opening on June 18 Dr. Erzsébet K. Szentpéteri, head of the Public Collections Division at the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, gave an address. The aim of Studio Corner, the series of exhibitions presenting contemporary arts, is that today's art should always be represented in the life of the museum. The exhibition Hands and Materials was intended by its organizer Agnes Prékopa to be a kind of millennial simtming up of such efforts, presenting two generations of Hungarian applied arts sharing the same artistic principles. The show, which ran from September 7 until October 17, was opened by the art historian János Frank. With the aid of 100 artefacts selected from the Milan Triennale's Permanent Collection Italian Design attempted to offer a wellarranged, comprehensive, but at the same time balanced and problem-centred picture of Italian design in the period between 1945 and 1990. Selection was based on a single principle: besides presenting examples of different artistic trends and types of artefact, the exhibition gave a picture of the work performed by the most important designers and firms. On display from October 8 until November 7, the exhibition was opened by Pierantonio Berté, director of the Triennale, and Giorgio Pressburger, director of Budapest's Italian Cultural Institute. Material was selected by Silvana Annicchiario, and was arranged for the Museum of Applied Arts by Ildikó Pandúr and Agnes Prékopa. Having discovered hitherto unexploited possibilities in porcelain, Imre Schrammel, one of the most significant Hungarian ceramic artists of our time, embarked on a group of figures - inspired by the Venice Carnival - which, through its novelty and daring ideas, created a new trend in small sculpture production at the Herend Porcelain Works. At the opening of the exhibition entitled Carnival, on October 15, the academician Dr. Ferenc Mádl saluted the artist and those assembled; the opening address was delivered by the interior designer György Fekete, the designer of the exhibition. From October 29 until November the public could view for the first time an exhibition of diploma assignments by students of design and interior design at the University of Sopron's Applied Arts Institute. It was opened by Tibor Wehner, head of division at the Ministry of Cultural Heritage. It was through an exhibition entitled Age of Copper that fifty students and two fellowprofessors paid their respects to the goldsmith József Engelsz, on the occasion of the