Saly Noémi (szerk.): Gorka Lívia keramikusművész (Budapest, 2010)
Kollin András: Bibliográfia
1 .. true material of the completed sculpture. Not even if he fires it in a kiln. In ancient art we often see unique clay images, fired and painted terracotta vessels meant for practical use, decorative objects, small statues used for religious rituals, clay plates, etc. In eastern Islamic art, buildings were covered in colourful, glazed surfaces depicting scenes from nature, ornamental decoration, etc. On all of these we can vividly see the craftsmanship, the working by hand and the use of simple tools, the very close relationship with the material, the clay. On the other hand these objects also convey a feeling of having been "taken from the Earth”, i.e. that the colour and form of the objects are as close as possible to Nature itself. And this was of course exactly the case; their creators were copying nature, or were they themselves simply created within it. The ancient harmony between man, nature and the earth can best be seen in the relics of ancient, archaic civilisations. This ancient harmony is what Lívia Gorka returned to both instinctively and knowingly in her art. A Prologue to the Art of Livi) Gorka 20th Century Hungarian Ceramics 34 már) and cubist-style groups of figures (Imre Simay), to name but a few, are the precursors and representatives of Hungarian Art Deco. Elza Kalmár Kövesházi and Imre Simay first encountered this new approach, which broke with the traditional sculpting mantra predominant in Hungary at the time even with regard to the way in which materials were used, on trips to Austria and Germany, respectively. They were also among the first to achieve the status of an artist who has broken free of the constraints of a controlling factory creating items which, though still tied to industrial production, were independent with regard to workmanship and design. She examines the harmonious relationships within the whole world along the "space and time" axis th it she herself conceived and set up. But within the context of social science and history, Space and Time mean two separate dimensions. In her case, the analysis :>f the problem reaches much further than the boundaries of applied art. Lívia Gorka time and again raises the important, creative-philosophical issues of artistic thinking and creative freedom. And her works provide the answers to these questions: they are autonomous (sculptural) works. While viewing her pieces we can see that from the mid nineteen fifties up to roughly the mid seventies her works simultaneously exhibit the distinguishing traits of both the artwork and typical forms of the era. With regard to her form and colour structure, her kno vledge of materials and art, her intelligence, sensitivi :y and talent, she would have been outstanding in any branch of creative art. Through her ceramics she convened the modernism of 20th Century Western Europe to the world of Hungarian art and interior design, and beyond that, to the Hungarian way of life. The sculptor extracts his forms from stone, crsts in bronze, carves in wood. He may model using c ay, but rarely regards it as the bearer of the final form, as the Before and around the time of the First World War a few sculptors stopped working in bronze and began massproducing small sculptures and statuettes in ceramics, to better meet the simpler tastes and demands of the masses. These items crossed well over the bo: ders of traditional arts and crafts, applied art, but at tf e same time the status and artistic value of ceramic sculptures was anything but well determined. These smal, easily mass-produced and cheaper sculptures, born from Art Nouveau tastes and produced from a material less noble than bronze, in actual fact fulfilled the role of ornaments. The gracefully shaped sculptures (Eiza Kal-
