Jakabffy Imre szerk.: Az Iparművészeti Múzeum Évkönyvei 13. (Budapest, 1971)

HOPP FERENC MÚZEUM - MUSÉE FERENC HOPP - Horváth, Tibor: Report on the Activities of the Hopp Museum of Eastern Asiatic Arts in 1969 and 1970

TIBOR HORVÁTH REPORT ON THE ACTIVITIES OF THE HOPP MUSEUM OF EASTERN ASIATIC ARTS IN 1969 AND 1970 1969 1969 is the year of the 50th anniversary of our museum, which we celebrated along witli the semi-centennial anniversary of the Hungarian Soviet Republic with opening a memorial exhibition as well as organizing a 3 day long international conference. The memorial exhibition is to present the most beautiful works in the collections of our museum. We look great pains to select the works so as lo sample the art of each country represented in our collection. The material to be exhibited was halved as follows: the Hopp Museum houses Zichy Jenő's Caucasian and Siberian archeological collection as well as the works of the Near and the Middle Fast. Mongolia, Pakistan. India. Nepal. South-Fasl India and Indonesia while the Chinese Museum made room for the Japanese. Vietnamese and Korean collections besides its standing Chinese exhibition. Chronologically or historically the works cover a wide period dating sometimes from as early as the middle of the second milleneum B.C. while reaching, in some cases, to the present time. Only one exception was made to this aim: the majority of the Japanese section of the collection apart from a few prehistoric finds dale from the centuries between the Nara period (A.D. 710-793) and 1600. The reason for this solution was that our "The Art of the Fdo Period. 1603—1867" exhibition closed at the end of December, 1968, so it was not necessary to include the materia] displayed there and thus we had the opportunity to show our rather small early Japanese collection as an independent separate section in a fairly big exhibit ion. We opened the exhibition on April, 22nd. on the very day when 50 years ago the Arts and Museum Directory of Educational Comissariat issued the resolution to set up a museum of Eastern Asiatic arts. The opening speech was delivered by Dr László Orbán, First. Deputy of the Minister of Education. The Museum Department of the Ministry of Education covered the expenses. Ils generosity made It possible for the Chinese Museum to obtain new glass cases among others. The project for ihe new acquisitions was prepared by dr. László Boreczky, art director of the Exhibition Group in the Outrai Directorate of the Museums. The exhibition itself was set up by the Exhibition Croup under Béla Keren y i s leadership. The guide book of 92 pages contains 32 full page plates and a brief summary in English. The booklet was edited by Tibor Horváth, with the different chapters written by Eva Cseh. László Ferenczy, Vera Horváth, and Péter Polcnyi. 6 Iparművészeti Múzeum Evkönyve 81