Prékopa Ágnes (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 29. (Budapest, 2013)

Imre TAKÁCS: The Upgrade Programme for the Budapest Museum of Applied Arts

NOTES

This review of the refurbishment and extension plans for the Museum of Applied Arts has been produced using the preparatory documents for the 2012 design competition and the talk presented at the VIADUKT workshop.

1 The definition applies to the family of museums whose origins and mission were the subject of a major exhibition in 2011-2012 (whose catalogue was also published in Hungarian). The Budapest Museum of Applied Arts is one of these museums. Art and Design for All, ed. Marie-Louise von Plessen and Julius Bryant, London, 2011 (hereinafter von Plessen and Bryant 2011). In particular, Julius Bryant, “Albertopolis”: the German Sources of the Victoria and Albert Museum (hereinafter Bryant 2011), ibid., pp. 25-39.

2 On Prince Albert’s vision: Marie-Louise von Plessen: “Art and Design for All: The Victoria and Albert Museum” In von Plessen and Bryant 2011,

pp. 13-15.

3 Quoted in Bryant 2011, p. 27.

4 Walter Benjamin: TII. Grandville oder die Weltausstellungen/ In Paris, die Haupstadt des XIX. Jahrhunderts. I, Frankfurt a. M., 1982, p. 50.

5 See n. 1.

6 Parliament’s grant of funds for purchases to form the basis of a collection was the true act of foundation.

The collection was exhibited shortly afterwards (1874), together with the publication of the first guide - a formulation of the new museum’s statutes.

Gyula Végh: ‘Adatok az Orsz. Magyar Iparművészeti Múzeum történetéhez’ [Historical Records of the National Hungarian Museum of Applied Arts], Magyar Művészet, 1931, p. 425; Piroska Ács, ‘Keletre magyar’. Az Iparművészeti Múzeum Palotájának építéstörténete a kordokumentumok tükrében [Hungary to the East: The architectural history of the Museum of Applied Arts through contemporary documents] Budapest, 1996, pp. 4-7.

7 Károly Pulszky, Kalauz a Magyar Iparművészeti Múzeum gyűjteményeihez [Guide to the collections of the Hungarian Museum of Applied Arts] (Pest, 1874).

8 Jenő Radisics, ‘Az Orsz. Magy. Iparművészeti Múzeum’ [The Nat. Hung. Museum of Applied Arts] (hereinafter Radisics 1897), Magyar Iparművészet, 1 (1897), pp. 26-30.

9 Radisics 1897, p. 27.

10 Jenő Radisics: ‘Az Orsz. Magy. Iparművészeti Múzeum és magyar gyűjteménye’ [The Nat. Hung. Museum of Applied Arts and its Hungarian collection] (hereinafter Radisics 1915),

Magyar Iparművészet, 18 (1915), p. 123.

11 Radisics 1897, p. 28.

12 Visitor figures given in Radisics 1915, p. 124.

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