Prékopa Ágnes (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 32. (Budapest, 2018)
Piroska NOVÁK: On the porcelain designer career of Éva Ambrus
NOTES 1 Since 2006 known as Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design. 2 Museum of Applied Arts, Collection of Ceramics and Glass, inv. no.: 2017.32-53. For more on the objects donated by Éva Ambrus to the Museum of Applied Arts and other works by the designer see the continuously expanding Collections database: http://gyűjtemény, imm. hu/ keres*sa=l&s=Amhrus%2C+%C3%89va (accessed 25 August 2017). 3 Ambrus, Éva (2016): The situation of the fine ceramics industry from the 1960s onwards. [Manuscript]. Museum of Applied Arts, Archives, KLT 4307/1-8. Éva Ambrus’s manuscript is also important because, to this day, only two catalogues of her life’s work have been published (in 2000 and 2012), which she herself edited; the introductory studies in both publications were written by art historian Éva Csenkey. Aside from these, we have only contemporary reports on her work, competitions results and exhibitions. At the same time, Éva Ambrus’s only publication in print form, in the 1977/5 issue of Ipari Forma, is important. In it she discusses the design and value engineering methods used in creating the UNISET-212 tableware for the food service industry. 4 Interview with ceramist Éva Ambrus on 21 March 2017. 5 Kádasi, Éva (ed.): 100/50. 100 years of ceramics education. 50 years of glass education. Budapest, Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, 2010 (henceforth: Kádasi 2010). 6 A vivid formulation of those demands and expectations appear in the contemporary records of György Duma, ceramics technology instructor at the college and, beginning in the academic year 1960/1961, director of the Department of Ceramics and Porcelain in the Faculty of Industrial Design: ‘In its second five-year-plan, the fine ceramics industry set its goal to expand the selection of household and decorative goods with respect to artistic quality. Part of the process of developing the quality and aesthetics of the products includes the employment by our companies of appropriate, qualified applied artists.’ György Duma’s notes from the Fine Ceramics Industry’s negotiations, 27 December 1960, MIW without inv. no./1960. Cited in: Kádasi 2010, 50. 7 Five students received their diplomas in 1967 in the department of porcelain design at the Hungarian College of Applied Arts: Éva Ambrus, Miklós Eőry, Erzsébet Láng, Károly Szekeres and Anikó W. Kálmán. 8 Schrammel, Imre: Laudation of Éva Ambrus upon her inauguration into the Hungarian Academy of Art. In Magyar Iparművészet 2014/8, 28-29. 9 For more, see: Haulisch, Lenke: Porcelain ’67. In Magyar Építőművészet 1968/1, 63-64. 10 The wall panelling model is currently found in the Ceramics Archives of the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design. 11 Museum of Applied Arts, Ceramics and Glass Collection, inv. no.: 2017.33-42. 12 Decisive moments in the history of the Hungarian Silicate Industry were its nationalization in 1948—49 and the creation of the National Company of the Fine Ceramics (FOV) Industry in 1963 (operating under the name Fine Ceramics Industrial Works [FIM] from 1968 onwards), which directed the work of eleven factories, determining their product profiles and offerings, as well as the manufacturing and distribution structures, and deciding in personnel questions, such as the hiring of designers. Fine Ceramics Industrial Works (FIM) directed the following companies: Alföld Porcelain Factory, Budapest Porcelain Factory, Granite Polishing Stone and Stoneware Factory, Herend Porcelain 116
