Katalin Gellér: The art colony of Gödöllő 1901-1920 (Gödöllő, 2001)

Sándor Nagy: Our Garden / oil. tempera on wood, 1902 Ferenc Sidló and Carla Undi. 1911 WORKSHOPS The Gödöllő colony, not unlike the rest of the early-century art colonies was characterized by an amalgam of abstract spirituality and practical common sense, romantic idealism and secessionist pragmatism. The great experiment of uniting the Arts and Crafts at the turn of the century was accompanied by several unanswered questions. The Gödöllő artists remained consistent in denouncing mass manufacture and insisted on expert handicrafts believed to be alone worthy of Man. Out of their creations, the weaving workshop proved most successful and longest lived. Aladár Körösfői-Kriesch took over Sarolta Kovalszky's looms from Németelemér (Torontál county) in 1904, and weaver Margit Guilleaume also moved to Gödöllő. In addition to the introduction of the techniques and the weaving of wall and floor carpets and cushions for everyday use, they began to design and execute compositions conveying their fundamental ideas. The presence of Leó Belmonte greatly boosted the workshop. Exellent weavers worked there including Lenke Boér, Vilma and Rózsa Frey, the latter as the head of the weaving workshop. They were not merely the executors of designs but they also planned ornamental and figural carpets. When in 1907 the workshop became the training venue of the Academy of Applied Arts, the number of students soared. They applied a wide variety of classical and folk techniques, such as various gobelins, the sumak and kilim. They only used natural materials and grew the plants for dyeing, in 1913 Rózsa Frey travelled to Mora in Sweden to learn the techniques of yarn dyeing used there. She brought along a Norwegian handbook of the major techniques of dyeing. Gödöllő carpets scored successes at domestic and international showings. It was the weaving workshop that promoted them to the rank of the leading workshop and example of Hungarian Art Nouveau. When some artists founded a colony in Kecskemét, they took Gödöllő as their model. There being no broad and solvent middle class in Hungary, they did not have many customers locally or in the country, yet the workshop survived, working during and after the First World War and creating a tradition effective till the present day. No exact information is available about the sculpture and ceramics workshops, except that they were headed by Aladár Körösfői-Kriesch and Ferenc Sidló. Of the sculptors, Ödön Moiret stayed in Gödöllő for a relatively short time. His glazed maiolica sculpture The Mystery of Life (c. 1925) was certainly made elsewhere, although its theme and spirit are highly typical of the colony. Rezső Mihály's glazed faiance statues were executed in the Zsolnay ceramic factory. The workshop's importance is also confirmed by the early graphic sheets of Jenő Remsey showing the "The Painter" and "The Ceramist". It is not known whether Sándor Nagy's embossed metal baptismal font was ever cast, as only the plaster sketch survived in his house.