Schenk Lea (szerk.): II. Pest megyei Iparművészeti Tárlat. Szentendrei Képtár 1990. október 23 - 1991. január 15 (Szentendre, 1991)
has been an intensive research in the autonomous plaslical opportunities inherent in the interior laws of specific media which resulted in the facts that certain applied arts genres had become autonomous fine arts genres and consequently fine arts genres had also been enriched in a certain way. By virtue of the fact that the autonomous plastical universe has been conquered by ceramics, glass and textile, artists have not merely utilized earlier unknown, latent possibilities inherent in these media but have launched a bilateral process simultaneously enriching applied arts genres and inspiring new solutions in the recipient fine arts genres. The inclusion of the third dimension with an orientation towards fine arts and the efforts for autonomy have started an interior change of aspect in applied arts genres which has first been manifested in a departure for plastical genres but at the same time it may result in closer connections with the genres of contemporary art. Applied artists, however, have not been primarily motivated by this tendency of orientation towards fine arts when they rejected the exclusive program of making objects of use in individual styles. Orientation towards fine arts has rather been an aftermath of the crisis of values emerging in applied arts when artists had to give up the program of producing handicrafts, at least, to a certain extent, since with the determining power of design - its blessings, problems and industrial background - individually produced artefacts have not been able to compete. The decisive factor in the functional change in applied arts has thus been design with its background industrial mechanism. The imprealive course of applied arts is thus motivated by two factors: an intention of not creating mere design and a capacity of creating fine arts. The second factor is feasible only if applied arts can avoid the trap of anti-art, an acute problem of fine arts the acceptance of which would not only mean a denial of the self but a complete self-annihilation in the given situation. Structural changes in applied arts have not been finished. To a certain extent defined by the demands of the market the traditional function of producing individually shaped objects of use and ornament has prevailed. Applied arts have thus become the most flexible visual discipline recently because, as a result of a process of decades, it has been able to respond to problems of fine arts. By virtue of this it has managed to solve its own crisis by entering into the fields of another disclipine and to extend the boundaries of fine arts whose creative minds have been brooding over the problems of anti-artistic endeavours while enriching it with new ways of expression based on an incredible, almost "magic" respect of the medium. The same flexibility applies to the program of applied artists who therefore become able to respond to the expectations of several genres of art being discontent with the typical role of the "specialized artist". They make and design functional works of applied arts but with a constant desire to produce autonomous formations striving to reveal the visual opportunities inherent in its specific media. This universal creativity provides a greater freedom of artistic choice with an ever widening spectrum. Lea Schenk 7
