Öriné Nagy Cecília (szerk.): A gödöllői szőnyeg 100 éve - Tanulmányok a 20. századi magyar textilművészet történetéhez (Gödöllő, 2009)

Summaries

Summaries 131 The Berény couple's success in Berlin was followed by the third exhibition of the Nyolcak organized again in the Nemzeti Szalon ('National Salon ) of Budapest, where again, chiefly the embroidery changed hands rather than the paintings or graphics. His newest paintings he exhibited then created a scandal, just as in the previous exhibition, but his embroidery collection met with unambiguous success: many artworks were sold, and the embroidery part had excellent reviews. As to the sales, the identity of only one buyer could be detected: Béla Krisztinkovits bought three cushions during the third exhibition of the Nyolcak. Unfortunately, these items are also unknown today. In the course of the recent years, however, one original piece came to light from the descendents of the Berény family. The handbag of Berény's first wife, Léni Somló, has been preserved by Dr. Tamás Sós, Berény's grandson, but only the embroidered part has endured from the whole bag, for the other parts got threadbare. At present, this is the only embroidery piece made by Berény, which can be studied in its physical reality. Besides, we know also the black-and-white reproduction of a wall-hanging identified from the catalogue of the exhibition in 1912 of the Nyolcak. The Berény couple's success in the field of applied arts was far from ending there. In the following year, they sent out a bigger collection to Brazil, to Rio Grande do Sul, where the exhibition burned down. After yet another year, in the spring of 1914, they exhibited again, this time more than a dozen of embroidery pieces, in the so called Briiko Salon in Vienna, where the cushions and other embroidery items designed by Berény had been placed in the street window of the Salon. In the year to follow, the painter's silk embroidery played again the leading role. In 1915, the Nyolcak exhibited once more together and the last time, in the World Exhibition of San Francisco, also known as the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. Nearly 500 works of art represented all the segments of Hungarian art for the first time abroad in this overseas exhibition, with Berény's 18 embroidery pieces among them. Although the exhibition had been standing for one year, very few Hungarian works were sold, but Berény's three pieces were: the Cirkuszi jelenet ('circus scene'), the Sárga hímzés ('yellow embroidery') and the Madarak a naplementében ('birds in sunset',). After the exhibiton closed, the exhibiting artists had to wait nearly one decade until they could get back their creations. But to many of them, their works had not even then been restored. For example, two of Berény's paintings had been misappropriated by John Nielsen Laurvik of Nowegian origin, just one of the organisers of the exhibition. Unfortunately, it did not turn out until now, whether or not the embroidery pieces got back to the artist, but even if they did, not a single piece of them can be found in the possession of the family and they could not be traced in any other place either. After delivery of the present manuscript, I have found, in the legacy of the art historian Béla Horváth, an embroidery piece being in a rather worn-out state, frayed for the most part. According to the statement of the owner of the legacy, Károly Kernstock had prepared it. However, it can safely be maintained on the basis of its style that it is one of Berény's cushions executed sometimes between 1912 and 1914 and it can be presumed that it is one of the three cushions mentioned above, which used to belong to Béla Krisztinkovits. The subject of the artwork also allows for the presumption that the cushion could be identical with the embroidery piece entitled Cirkuszi jelenet ('circus scene) exhibited also in San Francisco. László Kiss Carpet designers and styles 1900-1940 * 1 his is the excerpt of a projection program I intend to show to expert art historians. I wish to draw the attention to a few less known carpets and designs, which partly are in the possession of various private owners, partly have occurred in trade, or are little known for some other reason. I have tried to give a general overview of the artistic carpet design of the period, paying due attention also to Hungarian artists who worked abroad. Sándor Nagy presented his wall carpet Csikós ('horseherd') in the World Exhibition of Paris in 1900. Aladár Körösfői-Kriesch prepared his tapestry Itatás ('watering') in 1903. Ihe same scene and the same universe of colours can be recognized on the fancy ceramics manufactured by the factory of Emil Fischer in Budapest. Ihe firm also has used the motifs of Sándor Nagy and Mariska Undi on its fancy ceramics. There is a big size tapestry prepared by Sándor Nagy in the possession of the Gödöllő Town Museum its material being similar to tent-cloth. In my opinion, the artist meant to represent herein Attilas tent. I think that the designer of the wall-carpets found in 2007, which represent three small children, are Sándor Nagy and his wife (VI- VII. Színes tábla, illus 1). Sándor Nagy soon arrived at stylisation, which might go back to the technique of weaving. On many of his designs and small textiles, he has perpetuated, in the first decade of the century, some fuchsias and other potted flowers having very interesting shapes constituted by many squares (VI— VII. Színes tábla, illus 2).