Szilágyi András (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 16. (Budapest, 1997)

Kiállítások, események 1995-96

head of the Museum's Public Relations Department, an unusual appeal was published in the media. With the open intention of attracting sponsors for the exhibition, she invited the public to inspect some of the art objects kept in storage and intended for display in the exhibition, with the slogan "Let's Make an Exhibition Together!" This promising idea proved useful even though no new sponsors were forthcoming. Nevertheless, experts identified the types of turn-ofthe-century objects held in the Museum's rich and varied collection which were most appealing to the public today. And even more importantly, the initiative received widespread media coverage. Within a week of it, twelve news items or reports on the Museum and the forthcoming exhibition had featured on the radio, on television, or in various daily newspapers and weekly magazines. Likewise, two publications came out to mark this important anniversary: Style 1900, the two-volume exhibition catalogue edited by Eva Horányi and András Szilágyi, and The Architectural History of the Palace of the Applied Arts Museum, a work by Piroska Acs, the organizer of the identically-titled exhibition. The book - easy to read, richly illustrated and amply supplied with data provides a sensitive evocation of society and art during the last decades of the 19th century, determining factors in the building of one of the most original and impressive public buildings in Budapest at that time. The exhibition entitled Jewellery opened on December 3 as part of the Craft Corner series, and as the last exhibition of the year. After an appeal from the organizers, 682 pieces of jewellery arrived at the Museum; of these the most individual and the most boldly innovative works were selected. EVENTS Reviving a tradition which is a century old, the Museum holds an annual two-day Christmas Fair, which raises more and more interest every year. Here visitors can not only buy, but also make attractive objects; they can also obtain advice from invited artists on the wrapping of presents. The flower arranging show and fair held from February 11 to February 14, 1995 to mark St. Valentine's Day was a big hit, attracting more than 10,000 visitors during the course of the four days. In 1996 the event was repeated on a larger floor area, with the participation of more exhibitors and the achievement of even greater success. Children's events arranged for the last Saturday of every month have offered families an opportunity to spend time together in a rich and meaningful way. These events, which were usually linked to a holiday (Easter, Mothers' Day, Children's Day, etc.), helped promote the skills needed to make ingenious and imaginative objects. Judit Pataki At the Ferenc Hopp Museum the year 1995-96 was for the most part characterized by a series of exhibitions displaying the Museum's collection of Buddhist art. The series, which was launched in 1994 with the exhibition "Chinese Buddhist Art from the 10th Century to the 19th Century" organized by Györgyi Fajcsák, was accompanied by the publication of a catalogue with the same title. The second exhibition in the series was "Tibetan and Mongolian Buddhist Painted Scrolls", the joint work of Béla Kelényi and Judit Vinkovics (Hopp Museum, October 20, 1995 - June 4,1996). Among the approximately 160 art objects selected from the Museum's rich collection, small sculptures and ritual objects were included, in addition to paintings arranged thematically. In the first room - among the tantric depictions of Tibetan Buddhism as well as of its symbolic pictorial summaries, the mandalas - visitors could see one of the oldest paintings in the collection could be found: a 15th-century Kalachakra mandala from Middle Tibet. Rooms were given over to depictions of Bodhisattvas, Buddhas and Defender of the