Szilágyi András (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 26. (Budapest, 2008)
Events 2007
pieces exhibited were all made between 1900 and 1940. They included a doll's house furnished with a tiny Thonet suite of furniture (with a Christmas tree and presents), as well as typical toys from around the turn of the 20 th century for boys and girls. Since 1996, one of the high-level events in the capital has been the three-day applied arts fair entitled HAND-WORK. At the event, which was organised by the ceramist Zsuzsa Pannonhalmi and held on 7-9 December, approximately 170 professional applied artists participated, constructive discussions took place between forums and representatives of the applied arts, new specialist volumes and catalogues published by Tandem Books and Enciklopédia Books were presented along with the latest issues of the journal Magyar Iparművészet, and visitors had the chance to meet artists whose works they had already admired in shop windows. Organised in 2006, the first joint exhibition by the National Cultural Fund Programme and the Museum of Applied Arts filled a significant gap in the life of the Museum in that it finally placed before the public contemporary works judged to be outstanding and important by a responsible body, enabling visitors to orientate themselves with regard to the applied arts of the present, not just the historical material represented by the Museum's collections. In 2007, an exhibition entitled Plans Realised 2007 (it was organised by Katalin Ágnes Vass and Gábor Sándor Major) continued this initiative with a month-long presentation of works by nineteen artists. On 12 December, Zsuzsanna Renner, the Museum's newly appointed Director-General, and László Harsányi, the President of the National Cultural Fund, greeted the guests, after which László Zsóter, President of the College of Professional Applied Artists, opened the exhibition. In the twenty-six page catalogue, after an introductory study by Katalin Ágnes Vass (the curator of the show), each of the nineteen artists featured had a page on which he or she spoke of the work he or she had exhibited. Judit Pataki
