Saly Noémi (szerk.): Gorka Lívia keramikusművész (Budapest, 2010)
Kollin András: Bibliográfia
travel (Italy, Iceland, the Scandinavian countries, China, Greece etc.). The first foreign exhibition she took part in was the First International Ceramics Exhibition, held in Gmunden, Austria, in 1959.22 It was there that she met Kyllikki Salmenhaara, teacher at the Finnish College of Applied Art and designer for the Arabia factory in Helsinki, with whom she formed a life-long, professional relationship. It was also on the basis of her experiences in Finland, that she began firing iron and clay together. "I developed a never before seen or studied method of working to which I had no guidelines to follow, other than my own mentality".23 Her works appeared at the Ungerskt Konsthantwerk exhibition, held in Stockholm in 1962. In 1962, and again in 1964, she represented Hungary at the International Contemporary Ceramics Biennial in Prague. She won a gold medal at the Prague exhibition in 1962.24 The profession and the general public became more aware of her works following an exhibition of Modern Hungarian Ceramics, held at the Royal Festival Hall in London in 1963. The very successful exhibition was followed in the same year by the presentation of her work at the International Ceramic Exhibition at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C. The first major professional breakthrough came with the displaying of her works at the Contemporary Hungarian Artists exhibition in January of 1964 in Austria.25 The director of the Modern Museum in Linz personally selected the material for the exhibition (not according to the politically favoured tastes of the official representatives of the Hungarian professional community).26 From among the ceramic artists, he chose works only from Lívia Gorka. At the exhibition, Miklós Borsos's sculptures were displayed together with Lívia Gorka's pebble-shaped vases, large flat bowls and block-like birds combined with metal [Cat.: 84, 90]. The material used for her works was chamot clay, and the glaze on them was produced using a combination of quartz and metal filings. Her view of and approach to the world was similar to that of artists living in the free West. Her international success was partly due to this fact.27 Lívia Gorka's first significant individual exhibition opened in Budapest in 1964 at the István Csók Gallery.28 She displayed her new glaze and form experiments and the works that were created as a result of these. Decorative elements were of secondary importance compared to form. The aquamarines, yellows, reds, blues, greens and browns use in colouring were present just as base colours, providing mood [Cat.: 81, 86|.29 Her ceramics gave the effect of a new, previously unseen material of unknown structure. Her large birds, wall paintings and vases, best resembling "abstract” long organ pipes, already hinted towards future opportunities for development, which took her increasingly towards the creation of free-standing sculptures. The exhibition in Linz and her encounter with Miklós Borsos reinforced her future plans; she knew exactly that instead of glazes and objects fired at 980°C, she sought something entirely different.30 She has always been a prolific reader, interested in everything, but it was and is especially philosophical thinking, ancient arts and artistic issues that have formed her consciousness. Influenced by Ervin Baktay, a friend of her father and of the family, she nurtures a passionate interest in civilizations outside Europe, Indian and Chinese culture. The synthesis of parts and whole is important to her both professionally and in her entire view of the world. Only her interest in natural sciences and the study of natural phenomena can compete with her interest in humanities and the social sciences. She has often mentioned the geysers of Iceland as being a recurring experience. The upsurge of hot gasses and the minerals precipitating around them left her overawed, just as the flows of hardened volcanic lava and the image of rock and metal alloys melted by the heat did also, it was primarily these observations and her curiosity in making new objects that drove her to further experimentation with ceramics. To try and produce what nature itself had created - this was the real challenge for her. As Miklós Borsos wrote in the Foreword to the catalogue of her exhibitions in Veszprém and Keszthely in 1965: "We search for nature, we touch it and define it from era to era, philosophers and scholars, poets and artists alike. We search for the meaning of our work and life, for the source and heavens of our pleasure.”31 She begins to build a world around the issue of 39 T I
