Szilágyi András (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 27. (Budapest, 2009)
Events 2008
FERENC HOPP MUSEUM OF EASTERN ASIATIC ARTS EVENTS 2008 2008 saw the 175 t h anniversary of the birth of the great benefactor and founder of our museum, Ferenc Hopp, as well as the 85 th anniversary of the opening of the museum named after him. To commemorate this, in June, at the Night of the Museums a new temporary exhibition was opened, titled When the Gates of Asia opened. Travels and Collections of Ferenc Hopp (1833-1919). The show focused on the places Ferenc Hopp visited during his Asian travels: the Middle-East, India, South-East Asia, China and Japan. Objects collected during these trips were exhibited alongside with photographs taken or purchased there, and the letters wrote by him could be listened to. Together these objects brought close to us one of the most-travelled figures of the AustroHungarian Monarchy. The approximately 700 objects in the exhibition provide a chance for a virtual re-enactment of his five trips around the world. The exact route of the trips could be followed, along with contemporary photographs of the major places, while with the help of satellite photography and Google Earth software, a modern virtual trip could be made by visitors. The curators of the exhibition were Györgyi Fajcsák and Béla Kelényi. Further objects were selected and described by Eva Cseh, Zsuzsanna Renner, Krisztina Dávid, while material from the archives was published by Tatjána Kardos. Apart from objects from our museum, cameras and other objects of photography were on loan from the Hungarian Technical Museum and the Hungarian Museum of Geography, along with a globe. An illustrated guide helped our young visitors to appreciate the objects on view. To commemorate the anniversary and to accompany the exhibition, a long-time debt was also fulfilled, as a book was published to survey the times and life of Ferenc Hopp, and of course his collections: The Man of Buitenzorg Villa; Ferenc Hopp Glohe-Trotter and Art Collector (1833-1919), edited by Györgyi Fajcsák and Zsuzsanna Renner. Published in Hungarian and in English, the book contains two larger units and an appendix. Studies in the first unit focus on Ferenc Hopp and his age. Györgyi Fajcsák writes about the Hungarian view of the Far East in the period, and about the collecting history of oriental objects, while Mária Ferenczy surveys the life of Ferenc Hopp based on written and pictorial sources available today. The study of András Nádasi is about the Calderoni Company, which made and sold school supplies and provided the financial background to Hopp's travels. Calderoni's store was at the beginning of Váci Street in Budapest, and Béla Kelényi writes about the ever-changing shop windows. Ferenc Hopp also sold photography supplies, and as such was a great supporter of the cause of photography. His achievements in this field are surveyed in the study of Károly Kineses. János Kubassek wrote 190
