Gellér Katalin - G. Merva Mária - Őriné Nagy Cecília (szerk.): A gödöllői művésztelep 1901-1920 - The artist's colony of Gödöllő (Gödöllő, 2003)
GELLÉR, KATALIN: INNOVATION AND TRADITION
The little known sculptural and ceramic workshop involved Ödön Moiret, Ferenc Sidló and Körösfői-Kríesch, but Sándor Nagy also made plans for metal reliefs and ornaments. Recently found sketches prove that Kriesch designed plates, Sándor Nagy planned vases and bowls. Rezső Mihály's ceramic designs were executed by the Zsolnay factory at Pécs. Contemporary manufacturers used their designs published in the Decorative Patterns series. Emil Fischer, for example, used a butterfly motif of Sándor Nagy, and a flower pot echoes Kriesch's carpet Watering, another reproduces Mariska Undi's decorative frieze of playing children. 8 6 Mariska Undi, who collected toys designed by contemporary artists, also planned toys herself. The women, first of all Laura Kriesch, wore reformed clothes. Recollections claim that Irma Duczynska appeared in a Greek toga at a music evening in Körösfői-Kriesch's home. Mariska Undi and Sándor Nagy designed picture postcards, but there are subtly drawn postcards by Ferenc Sidló written to Körösfői-Kriesch's children. Illustrated letters and postcards by nearly all the artists are known, the finest ones by Sándor Nagy's wife. In the Kriesch family, everyone learnt music. KörösfőiKríesch played the violin, Laura played the piano. They staged recitals of classical and contemporary composers and writers, and there were dance performances as well, Mariska Undi was in close relationship with Valéria Dienes, a follower of Henri Bergson, who professed pioneering views on dance popularising Isadora Duncan's method in Hungary. Especially the younger ones (Rezső Mihály, István Zichy) attended the performances of the Thalia Society and designed stage sets. Settling in Gödöllő and starting work went parallel with the creation of a home, with emphasis on establishing the right way of living. The importance of the hearth was enhanced by the familiar character of the colony resembling the Four of Glasgow, Hvitträska of Finland, or the Six (later Eight) of Belgium. The artists settled with their families, many married employees of the weaving workshop. They conceived of the home as the reflection of the soul, hence its furnishing reveals a lot about their views on life and art. With the atelier houses planned by István Medgyaszay the most up-to-date endeavours of the age appeared in Gödöllő. Ever newer information is found about their contact with architecture, such as the sketchy plans for the Venice exhibition pavilion by Sándor Nagy, as well as architectural fantasies of an organic nature. At the beginning, nearly all their works were manifestos underlining the service of "Life" and their ideas. "We are fitting out an apartment in which luxury manifests itself in the wealth of thoughts [...] each of the objects are alive, they live in the form and colour lent them by art, they live their practical life and also live the personalities of the dwellers, adjusted thoroughly to the requirements of the new world view which actually and necessarily called them to life," Aladár Körösfői-Kriesch wrote in 1905. 8 7 The secessionism of the Gödöllő colony was not only escapism, the aspiration after abstract beauty, but a conscious stop-gap artistic reform. The demolition of the partition walls between "high" and "low" art, the equalisation of art and folk art continued the programmes that started in the previous century. The adoption of Ruskin's and Morris' ideas that triggered off the revival of applied arts and their anti-capitalism, their preference of handicrafts to manufacturing industries, was not only a sign of their belatedness but also an outcome of the arrears of general Hungarian social development. Apart from the moral improvement of the individual, they tried to resolve the contradictions of modernisation by turning to an idealised past, similarly to their English examples, taking the Transylvanian village community, the repository of medieval traditions, as their model. The borrowing of Morris' dual idea "for the people and for the benefit of the people" was part of efforts of realistic contents adjusted to the Hungarian situation, aiming to revive or introduce local homecrafts which became a source of living in several regions from the late 19th century. The connection of handicrafts and manufacturing industry raised several, still unsettled, problems at the beginning of the 20th century. From among the manual workshops using vegetable dyes, only the ones that were supported by rich patrons could survive. Though the Gödöllő colony could only count on the support of the modest Hungarian middle strata, they firmly rejected the use of cheaper manufactured materials, insisting on quality. The first tests of their activity were interior designs presented at Hungarian exhibitions and world expos. In Körösfői-Kriesch's view, the interior was best suited to "help bridge the deep abyss between life and art". 8 8 This was well exemplified by their exhibition of 1904 in the Society of the Friends of Art at no. 25 Váczi Street. Ede Thoroczkai Wigand, Aladár Kriesch and Mariska Undi jointly presented a suite of hall, dining room, man's and woman's studies, adorned by Károly Mayböhm's glass paintings, Fülöp Ö. Beck's plaques and vases, and János Vaszary's panneaux. In another interior, a dining room planned by Ede Thoroczkai Wigand, the walls were adorned by watercolours and copperplates by Sándor Nagy. Being the most experienced designer, Thoroczkai Wigand added a Viennese flavour to the ensemble in Hungarian taste. The applied materials including ivory also echoed the Viennese flair for luxurious materials. The male study was designed by Körösfői-Kríesch using Kalotaszeg motifs, painted wooden beams and pole orna-
