Szilágyi András (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 25. (Budapest, 2007)
Éva KISS: Fragmentary look at a carrier. The interior design work of László Juhász (1906-1968)
7. Entrance to Fenyves Department Store the size of the flat, “with an increased awareness of function and the new guiding principles of technical development”. It was stated in the minutes that such furniture could not be created without preliminary studies and experiments. The idea of opening a “new type of home decoration shop” was also considered at that time, where “shoppers could view the new factory-produced furniture type in the appropriate artistic environment, which would create the atmosphere of a flat. To achieve this, the home decoration shop would have to display and carry all applied art works and products related to the home ....” To ensure quality, “the new home decoration shop would only carry those furniture types whose design was approved and permitted by either the Applied Arts Council’s professional committee on furniture, or its Permission Department.”17 On August 4, 1956, the “Furniture and Home Decoration Exhibit” opened. The furniture and rooms were designed by Ottó Simon, Sándor Bedécs, László Hornicsek, Mrs. Tibor Moess, József Peresztegi, and Sándor Gergely, but other home accessories appeared in the exhibit in large numbers, such as the glass works of Júlia Báthory, the metalworks of Margit Teván, the ceramics of István Gádor, Géza Gorka, Lívia Gorka and Margit Kovács, and the textiles of István Pekáry and Ernő Schubert. The foreword to the modest but tasteful catalogue was written by Gyula Kaesz, and the exhibit was designed by young graduates of the Academy of Applied Arts. The Council also kept collections of photographs of the industrially-produced objects critiqued by the professional committees in its files and had a library with journals (old and new), books, and international publications acquired through various channels. A great deal of further events, competitions, and conferences accompanied the work of the Applied Arts Council, which bear witness to the correctness of its intentions. In 1957 the Council began steadily 165
