Katonas Imre: Mai magyar kerámia. (A Janus Pannonius Múzeum Füzetei 14. Pécs, 1968)

HUNGARIAN CERAMICS TODAY In the first moment, the works of Hungarian ceramics appear to be very similar. Seemingly, these works presented here appear to be similar not only in form but in technique and technology too. However, they, after a profound investigation, show a variety of incredibly large scale of form and technique. To call attention to the distinctions between the individual pieces it is necessary to get acquainted with those circumstances, at least in brief, in which these works of ceramics have been created, and the way in which they have developed, they have taken this shape they are having. The works of ceramics presented here have been created by different generations. The first generation ensuring the continuity of traditions is represented by István Gádor, Géza Gorka, and Margit Kovács. The oldest of them, István Gádor, began his career in the time of secession, which is to be regarded as the great age of the development of applied arts. Géza Gorka and Margit Kovács, however, they are the representatives of the same generation, began their career between the two World Wars. When Gorka and Kovács studied their art, Gádor, as a result of his co-operation with a group of socialist artists changed his secessionist way of expression into a primitive expressionism, moreover, he followed the stylistic trend of a more realistic, moderate expressionism. In this time, Wiener Werkstätte was the centre of the stylistic trends tending from secession into expressionism. Both expressionism and secession helped the inspiration of the works of national folk art to be realized. And this explains the fact that not only Gádor but Margit Kovács having studied in Wiener Werkstätte began career influenced by folk inspiration. Géza Gorka's popular art has a different incentive. He was inspired by the direct traditions of folk art, by the folk pottery of different character in Mezőtúr and County Nyitra. He acquired his practical knowledge from the folk art of Mezőtúr, and he learned the highly developed technique and technology, and the artistic way of expression of the pots in County Nyitra. The art of Hungarian ceramics was cha-