Szilágyi András (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 24. (Budapest, 2006)

In Memoriam Ferenc Batári (1934-2005) (András Szilágyi)

FERENC BATÁRI (1934-2005) "The exhibition was arranged by...", "The artefacts were selected and systematized by...", "The volume... the catalogue... the book was written and edited by..." Ferenc Batári

's name is most likely to occur in such contexts, that is, as the subject of brief, matter-of-fact statements and sentences. In all probability, it is in this form that his name will be remembered by succeeding generations and preserved in the collective memory of Hungarian and foreign art historians. And this is how we, his colleagues remember him. Let me add that we are talking about valuable publications of prominent significance and outstanding exhibitions that attracted the public and learned experts alike - this is a common personal experience for us and an evident fact in professionals'judgement. Exhibitions and publications were equally important for him; they preconditioned each other, as it were. He had an exceptional sense for and took great pleasure in arranging exhibitions; if we turned to him with requests or questions, he readily talked about his old or more recent works. He talked about his very first work, the interior design exhibition of the Eszterházy castle in Pápa as well as about his more recent, well-known projects; he discussed how he had worked and what kind of tasks he had faced when, among others, he arranged exhibitions in Keszthely, Kecskemét, Sopron, Vienna, Graz, Prague or London. When we asked him about the touchstones and tricks of a successful exhibition, he gave an answer worth considering. "It is beneficent if the organizer sets to work with a necessary amount of inventiveness; however, besides a thorough grounding and a refined artistic taste, it is none the less important that he should keep his intention and concept in the background. He should by no means show off his - possibly coruscating ideas at the expense of the artefacts." This principle, along with another fundamental point of view, namely, that those artefacts which are, one way or another, connected, "find" each other most naturally, were vividly effectuated by the last four decades' major, much-frequented exhibitions of the Museum of Applied Arts: "Masterworks of European Applied Arts" (1972), "Art Nouveau - Works of Applied Arts from 1900" (1975); "From Classicism to Biedermeier" (1990), "Revival Styles of the 19

th Century" (1992). Out of his involved tasks, which ones were the "dearest" to him? After years or decades which ones is he the gladdest to remember? When he answered these questions, the conversation - sooner or later, yet almost invariably turned to Nagytétény. It was in summer 1953 that Ferenc Batári, having finished his studies at the Petőfi (earlier Werbőczy) Grammar