Undiscovered gems
‘THESE ARTISTS WERE INCREDIBLY WELL- KNOWN IN THEIR DAY'
A new exhibition at Glasgow's Collins Gallery focuses on a hitherto marginalised period in Hungarian architecture and design, as Leon McDermott discovers
looked at.’ Many artists and designers who remained i
he first half of the last century was a period of
uproar and turmoil for nearly all of Europe.
but few nations went through as much tumult as Hungary. Devastated by the first world war, a , Bolshevik revolution, a subsequent right wing backlash, partition, subdivision, another war, and.
come 1956, the iron hand of post-Stalinist Russia
rolling tanks through the capital, Budapest, to assert
a communist authority which would last until 1989, Hungary’s culture was beaten down, its brightest talents forced to flee to the West.
Google Lili Markus, a ceramicist and designer, her
husband Viktor (a structural engineer), or their collaborator, architect and designer Lajos Kosma and you won’t find much; sift through dusty tomes on central European art and mid-20th century
modernism, and you‘ll be left similarly wanting. So,
In the Eye of the Storm, a new show in Glasgow’s Collins Gallery which shines a light on Hungarian modernist design, arts and crafts, is a much needed corrective to half a century of ignorance.
For co-curator Juliet Kinchin — recently appointed
curator of design at New York’s Museum of Modern
Art, and formerly part of Glasgow University’s Art History department — In the Eye of the Storm is the
culmination of years of work in a field which is ?
unknown outside of a select group of experts. Focusing on the years 1930 to 1960, the exhibition,
says Kinchin, showcases ‘a really vibrant period of
Hungarian architecture and design we’re only just beginning to rediscover; even in Hungary itself, once
you got into the communist era. this [area] was not !
I
in the country after the 1956 revolution saw their
work purged by officialdom, according to Kinchin, ‘so there’s now this process of readjustment and it’s
beginning to reshape our sense of the development of
the modern movement internationally.’ The Markuses. for example. ‘were incredibly well- known in their day; they weren‘t just local, provincial
artists. Lili, who is at the core of the exhibition, was
winning awards in Milan, Paris and New York.‘ However, Lili Markus left Hungary in 193‘). settling in Britain. where the strong links between crafts. art and architecture — so important to William Morris at the turn of the century — had been severed. Marginalised in Britain, and cut off from the gestalt
ideas about design. art. manufacture. graphics and '
photography she was used to. her work scattered to
the winds; it was not until 2002 that any of her
ceramics were seen again even in her home country. Now, though, this is changing; according to
Kinchin. the hotbed of modernism that was Budapest ‘
is forcing a realignment of thinking about the
movement itself. Central Iiurope was in fact
modernism’s home. Hungarian modernism. says Kinchin, ‘is not just a pale imitation of Western European models; in fact you might suggest the
inverse: it’s really the central European development .
that is absolutely core to the way it developed in the
West and in America.’
In the Eye of the Storm, Collins Gallery, Glasgow, Sat 4 Oct-Sat 22 Nov.
www.list.co.uk/visualart
LIST
THE BEST EXHIBITIONS
3&4 Richard Hughes: Nothing Left, It’s All Right Turning tat into art, Hughes transforms human debris into sculpture and. in doing so, makes us look at our littered environment with fresh eyes. Simultaneously repulsive and compelling. See review, page 96. The Modern Institute, Glasgow, until Sat 4 Oct.
1%: Autoconstruccion Abraham Cruzvillegas, a man whose work has been described as ‘enchantingly zany', shares the fruit of a six-month residency in an exhibition that combines sculpture, music and a taste of Mexico. See caption, page 97. CCA, Glasgow, until Sat 8 Nov. 3%: Kill Your Timid Notion: Exhibition Not for the faint- hearted, this warm-up for the experimental music festival features the intense 'flicker' videos of Norway's Kjell Bjorgeengen and an equally uncomfortable music/film installation by the late Paul Shartis. See review, page 96. DCA, Dundee, until Thu 9 Oct.
is Alex Frost: Compassion Fatigue Tying in with the launch of a book by the GSA graduate, this new collection of oven-baked clay sculptures of lotions. potions and low-cholesterol cereals takes a wry look at our health-fixated high street shops. Sorcha Dal/as, Glasgow, Sat 77 Oct—Sat 15 Nov. =l< The Art of ltaiy in the Royal Collection: The Renaissance Extraordinary drawings such as 03 Vinci's ‘Neptune' and Michelangelo’s “Fall of Phaeton' shown alongside a vibrant selection of paintings and drawings by Bellini. Titian and Raphael. A great cross- section of the incredible range and quality of work produced in 16th and 17th century Italy. The Queen’s Gallery, Palace of Holyroodhouse, until Sun 26 Oct.
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