Szilágyi András (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 25. (Budapest, 2007)
Magda LICHNER: Early Works by Gyula Kaesz: His Designs for the Parish Church of St. Nicolas at Muraszombat /Murska Sobota
the Budapest Studio, founded in 1913, was similar, but this trend also appeared in other parts of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and in Germany.13 For example, in the 1921 volume of the Darmstadt periodical Innen- Dekoration edited by Alexander Koch, we find a series of sketches and works by designers who were clearly in sympathy with the trend represented by the Budapest Studio: Professor Emanuel von Seidl, C. Müller from the office of Rath & Balbach, Alex Mantel and Max Wiederanders from Munich, and Lothar Weincheimer from Orosskönigsdorf. In the same volume we come across examples of the slightly Oriental ‘Art Deco’ furniture incorporating Chinese and Japanese elements from which Kozma and Kaesz both drew inspiration, in designs by the architect Walther Sobotka of Vienna, Fritz Breuhaus of Cologne and Emil Fahrenkamp of Düsseldorf.14 Very few of Gyula Kaesz’s early designs were realised. If we wish to acquaint ourselves with his artistic taste and principles, we can really only do so from the decorative designs he submitted for various competitions. Between 1917 and in 1919, he worked alongside his formal schoolmate Tivadar Kocsis. They self-consciously but proudly called themselves ‘artists who built’, and operated 2. Design of a wall bracket. Archive of the Research Institute for Art History, Budapest an office in Baross utca in Pest (the building is depicted on the company seal).15 Among the fruits of their co-operation were two successful competition entries, one in 1918 and the other in 1919. The first of these, a design for a public cemetery and crematorium in Debrecen, won first prize, while the second, submitted for an invitation-only competition, was a design (actually implemented) for a cemetery building in Szombathely. Both designs were for Mediterranean-style spatial compositions.16 On the other hand, his design entitled ‘Yellow Building’ submitted in 1918 for a competition in Gyöngyös took account of the Baroque ambience of that small town.17 Volutes, flattened domes, wooden gates featuring obliquely slanting boards, apertures surrounds, bulging columns, profiles and lines based on the play of convex and concave spans, and versions of stylised ornamentation based on gingerbread shapes, - it was these that determined the appearance of the buildings intended by him. Such was the design he submitted in 1921 for the ‘House of Culture’ competition announced by the Association of Hungarian Engineers and Architects. Even more typical was a sketch he made in 1927 showing his ideas regarding the new residence planned for the Chief Administrative Officer of Villány District in Baranya County.18 Among the early works by Gyula Kaesz actually implemented were light fittings he designed in 1927 for the Roman Catholic Parish Church of St. Nicholas at Muraszombat, which by then lay outside Hungary. Some of these involved the use of electricity (a chandelier, standard lamps and lamp- brackets), but others did not (the sanctuary light and the candlesticks for the high altar and side altars). Today these artefacts are still to be found at the church (Fig. 9). Kaesz received the commission through Károly Csányi, at that time the director of the 125
