Szilágyi András (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 28. (Budapest, 2012)
Magdolna ZIMÁNYI (GYÖRGYI): The Hungarian Room Designed by Dénes Györgyi at the University of Pittsburgh
exhibited in Brussels in 1935 and in the Hungarian pavilion planned by Dénes Györgyi for the Paris expo in 1937, would probably have arrived through the mediation of the ministry. The wood carving shows an old peasant saying farewell to his son ready to leave for America. These objects, however, remained at home. That despite the harsh economic conditions the room was completed owed to the efforts of the University of Pittsburgh, the untiring work of Ruth Crawford Mitchell and the Hungarian Room Commission headed by Samuel C. Gömöry, to the donations of the American Hungarians, to support by consul Lajos Alexy, the minister Count Kuno Klebeisberg and the undersecretary Gyula Kornis, and first and foremost, to the steadiness and enthusiastic commitment of Dénes Györgyi which made him accomplish the undertaken task even when the hoped-for support by the government failed. From the dedication to our day Political relations during and after World War II made it impossible for Hungary to have contacts with the University of Pittsburgh. In his monograph of Dénes Györgyi's oeuvre Mihály Kubinszky 3 4 only touches on the room in passing. The Hungarian Room Committee in Pittsburgh have made every effort to attract attention to the room. To substitute, as it were, for the planned wall textile or fresco, stained glass windows were made for the room in the mid-1950s on themes of Hungarian myths, history and culture, showing Nimród, Hunor and Magor, Árpád, King St Stephen, King Béla IV, King Matthias Corvinus, Prince Ferenc (Francis) II Rákóczi, the poet Sándor Petőfi, the composer Ferenc Liszt and the painter Mihály Munkácsy. The windows designed by Lewis Diera 3 5 were inaugurated in an enthusiastic and elevated atmosphere on 28 October 1956. The Hungarian Room Committee set a foundation in 1985 in memory of Dr. Sámuel Gömöry ten years after his death. With its help a Pittsburgh student can take a three-month study trip to Hungary every year. The foundation was initiated by Gömöry himself when he donated 500 dollars in 1960. The committee stages programs regularly; in 2009, for example, they commemorated the 70th anniversary of the completion of the room. The University of Pittsburgh still deems the program of nationality rooms important and keeps extending it. The successor of Ruth Crawford Mitchell, E. Maxine Bruhns is still the head of the program. Several books and occasional publications describe the nationality rooms and regular news appears on their homepage. 3 6 The rooms enhance the touristic appeal of the university as well. There are about a 100,000 visitors a year who are taken round by students. At present eight rooms are being prepared to add to the existing 27: Danish, Finnish, Iranian, Latin American, Philippine, Swiss, Thai and Turkish. Today the construction cost of a nationality room is some 250,000-400,000 dollars. The Hungarian room of the University of Pittsburgh has represented the Hungarian cultural heritage, as well as the Hungarian interior design and decorative arts of its time for over seventy years in the United States of America. The author wishes to express her gratitude to the Library and Archives of the University of Pittsburgh for putting a lot of 33
