Prékopa Ágnes (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 29. (Budapest, 2013)
The Museum of Applied Arts in 2011-12
visitors through the modernism of the early thirties, to the “Viennese School” which managed to fuse functionalism with bourgeois comfort. The exhibition finished with the arrival at the end of the decade of a strong interest in folk art. Apart from pieces by the leading artistic lights of the day, Lajos Kozma and Gyula Kaesz, furniture by other less-known but equally active designers such as Zsuzsa Kovács, György Frankel, György Kóródy, Pál Vágó, Károly Nagy were also represented, accompanied by decorative objects, textiles and lamps. The relationship between the applied arts and its public was highlighted by the inclusion of posters, product catalogues, and printed and moving image advertisements. The selection of contemporary documents, archive photographs, designs and artefacts all helped to conjure up the spirit of the age. Together with the exhibits from the Museum of Applied Arts’ collection, there were circa 440 objects on display from its partner institutions, collectors and private individuals, some of which had never been shown to the general public before. The studies in the catalogue dealt with issues relating to both the applied and the visual arts and architecture between the two World Wars with special reference to the objects featured in the exhibition. The exhibition was curated by Éva Horányi, while credit for the contemporary interiors in which the objects were displayed goes to Tibor Somlai. The enormous interest shown by both the experts of the field and the general public led to the exhibition staying open until November rather than the originally intended September. This major exhibition on artistic life in Hungary between the two World Wars was accompanied by two smaller exhibitions: A Hungarian Artist in England - Lili Markus’s Ceramics and the Márkus Family 2nd March-29th April 2012 The exhibition - a Hungarian adaptation of the show Juliet Kinchin organized at Glasgow’s Collins Gallery in the autumn of 2008 - gave a parallel account of one of Hungary’s most important iron structure manufacturing firm of the inter-war period, Márkus Lajos Rt. and the career in ceramics of one of the era’s emancipated female artists, Lili Márkus. The exhibition was organized with the help of the Márkus family, and was curated by Pál Ritoók (Hungarian Museum of Architecture). The catalogue for the exhibition, which was in both English and Hungarian, was the same one used for the exhibition in Glasgow. Movement - The History and Connections of Hungarian Movement Art 1902-1950 29th June - 9th September 2012 This exhibition organized in conjunction with the Institute of Art History - Research Centre for the Humanities of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences featured Hungarian modern dance which came into being with the emergence of Valéria Dienes and Alice Madzsar. From its very beginnings Hungarian ‘movement art’ was tightly bound to the visual arts, the applied arts and the photography of the time. The exhibition traced this relationship with the aid of the portraits contemporary Hungarian photographers took of the modern dancers, the studies of the movement of the human body, undertaken with the cooperation of the dancers, and the photographs that were taken of the performances. The exhibition was curated by Gabriella Vincze according to the original concept of László Beke. 110
