Image: Martin Levy
Earlier this year I was awarded a bursary to join the Decorative Arts Society on their research trip to Hungary. After carrying out PhD research into applied arts, crafts and notions of national identity in Communist Czechoslovakia, I wished to expand my understanding to neighbouring Central and Eastern European countries with an eye to extending research in the field.
The trip was an incredible experience of colour and stimulation that is hard to capture fully here. But on the 10th November 2018, I was given the opportunity to present at the Sotheby’s Institute on a selection of objects and sites that we visited. These included Ödön Lechner’s Geological Institute (1896–99), the Fasori Reformed Church (1911-13), by architect Aladá Àrkay, the Schiffer Villa, the Miksa Róth Memorial House (all in Budapest), the 1907 New Synagogue in Szeged, Gödöllő Artists’ Colony and the large collections of Zsolnay porcelain, both in in the town museum and the factory quarter in Pécs. My full report is published in the Decorative Arts Society Summer 2018 Newsletter.
I very much hope to take this research further and cannot thank the Decorative Arts Society enough for their generosity. More information on their bursaries and awards can be found here.