Prékopa Ágnes (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 32. (Budapest, 2018)

Edit DARABOS: Blomstermarmor, klistermarmor. Modern Danish endpapers in the collection of the Museum of Applied Arts

or rollers, finger-drawn lines and ‘sun’ patterns and had underlying colour schemes consisting of vivid reds and blues. (Fig. 14) In his study mentioned above, Kyster published paste papers reminiscent of Herrnhut works, proving that he was familiar with and used patterns form earlier periods. (Fig. 15)

As with the marbled papers, identification of the paste papers purchased by Radisics in the Budapest Museum of Applied Arts’ collection was possible thanks to contemporary reproductions and similarities in mounting. As Bindesboll did not make marbled papers, his works can be found only among the sheets of paste paper. The Kyster study and the signed sheets in the Designmuseum Danmark in Copenhagen prove that Bindesboll indeed made paste papers, in most cases together with Kyster. (Fig. 16) Works produced by this joint effort were dated to c. 1898 by Emil Hannover, but Bindesboll had already become acquainted with the method earlier. The first international success of the Danish Book-craft society Foreningfor Boghaandvark came at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, where Bindesboll exhibited a binding covered in paste paper.58 Bindesboll taught the technique to Kyster.

The author of the latest monograph on Bindesboll classified the Danish designer’s paste papers as some of the first action paintings,59 After all, the sheets attributed to Bindesboll are characterized by energetic abstract patterns created with the artist’s finger, and although precedents exist (such as the Herrnhut papers discussed above), Bindesboll’s painted papers indeed rose to the level of expressive graphic-painterly works of art. A study of the painted sheets reveals a surprising connection to Bindesboll’s glazed ceramics. The influence of Japanese ceramics (glazed stoneware) is clearly manifest in Bindesboll’s ceramic plates and vases with their visible patches of primer and earth colours.“ (Fig. 17) Bindesboll approached his ceramics as if they were abstract paintings and was similarly vigorous in modelling his paste paper works.

The paste papers purchased by Radisics in the Museum of Applied Arts can be divided into three groups: 1) those that display pattern designs and modelling typical of traditional paste papers; 2) those that employ an abstract-expressive pattern system; 3) those painted with the use of stencils.

The group recalling lS^-century paste papers are characterized by a crisp and distinctive system of lines and muted colours. Many sheets have a palette of basic beige, brownish-grey colours; next to the clusters of parallel lines that wave and wind are stylized flowers that form a part of the pattern. (Fig. 18)

Although we might be inclined to attribute the papers in the second group to Bindesboll, we can only do so tentatively, as the works are unsigned. Of the papers made jointly by Bindesboll and Kyster— only one sheet contains the signatures of both—several Bindesboll sheets were made in an expressive style. (Figs. 20-21) The technique required that the two artists work simultaneously. A look at the Copenhagen papers erases any doubt about the artists’ mutual influence. Kyster also made abstract papers, while Bindesboll tried adapting traditional patterns. By adopting the 18th-century technique of making paste papers, the Danish artists managed to create surfaces having a novel, abstract effect. Possibly Kyster, who was experienced in the technique, applied the

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