Art Nouveau stained glass
Miksa Róth (1865-1944) is an internationally acknowledged master of Art Nouveau glass painting. In his former home in Nefelejcs Street (VII, Nefelejcs utca 26) an impressive selection of his life’s work is exhibited from his earlier traditional, classically conceived works to his later pieces reflecting the newly emergent style of European innovations of the time.
The allegoric, finely decorated glass paintings in the historicising style from the end of the 19th century gave way to geometric patterns employing simple shapes with the opalescent influence of the Sezession at the turn of the century. The common source of this new style, which was given different names in different parts of Europe (Jugendstil, Sezession, Art Nouveau, Modern Style), was the revolutionary approach of the Arts and Crafts movement in Britain that promoted the revival of craftsmanship in all areas of art and design, and fed on folk and mediaeval traditions. This became a common movement, a common form of expression almost Europewide.
In Hungary this international model found expression through the Sezessionist school of art in Gödöllő. The villas, churches and cultural institutions from the turn of the century were harmonised in form throughout their design, in their painting, mosaic art, furniture design and, last but not least, their stained glass. Through his magnificent works Miksa Róth was involved in the design of most of Budapest’s famous buildings from the period – the House of Parliament, the Academy of Music or the recently restored Gresham Palace to mention but a few.
www.rothmuzeum.hu
-----------------------------------
KOGART
Culture vultures in search of good pickings should go to Kogart on Andrássy Avenue. The home of the Young Artists’ Club in the communist era, the building now functions as a gallery cum restaurant. The gallery aims to promote Hungarian contemporary art, while showing a variety of exhibitions from other periods each year. The restaurant in the basement is open throughout the day and its philosophy is light, healthy food, which sounds like the perfect antidote when you’ve had your belly full of art upstairs. Some evenings there’s live music and there’s a terrace for a cooling ice cream in the summer. In short, there’s a world of taste to be discovered in the restaurant and in the gallery, too!
www.kogart.hu
Óbuda – day trip with exhibitions
Óbuda in the north of Buda is the capital’s oldest inhabited part. Well before Christ the Celts had a settlement here called Ak-Ink, which during the Roman occupation became Aquincum, the main city of the province of Pannonia. When the Magyars came to the area, they found a Slav village here called Voda, meaning water, hence the name Buda. In the mid-13th century the name became increasingly associated with the new castle and town that grew up around it, so to distinguish the two, the old town was referred to as Óbuda, that is Old Buda.
Today, it is still worth going for a walk in the capital’s oldest district. Don’t be put off by the concrete monstrosities when you approach it from the city centre: behind them the renovated main square (Fő tér) with its charming little one or two-storey houses, restaurants and Town Hall from the early 1900s are a refreshing surprise. The most beautiful building on the square is the baroque mansion built for the Zichy family, the landlords in the 18th century. Externally the two-storey building is rather modest but its staircase is richly decorated. Today it houses a cultural centre with an exhibition dedicated to Lajos Kassák, the master of Hungarian avant-garde literature and art. In the modernised and converted stables at no. 3 there is the Vasarely Museum. Behind the building there is a statue of people with umbrellas, a favourite for photos on a rainy day, and indeed it does take you back to the bygone world of Óbuda. The main square has been the centre of Óbuda since the 18th century. Although it became part of Budapest through its merger with Buda and Pest in 1872, it retained the character of a small town until the sixties. Then the run-down old houses started to be demolished and replaced by today’s ugly and impersonal concrete housing estates. Luckily, at least Fő tér, preserved in its almost original form, recalls the ambience of the old town with its friendly restaurants and community life.
Óbuda’s other jewel is the baroque building of the Kiscell Museum on Mátyás Hill, which you get to by taking the steep road Kiscelli utca from Bécsi út (III, Kiscelli utca 108). It was built as a monastery and church between 1745 and 1760 for Trinitarian monks settled in Óbuda by the Zichy family. When the order was dissolved by the emperor in 1784, it became the property of the state treasury. In the next one hundred years it served as a barracks, military warehouse and a home for old soldiers. In the early 1900s the neglected building was bought by a Viennese furniture maker Miksa Schmidt to house his private collection and store samples of furniture made by him. In 1935 he bequeathed the building with its contents and the park to the town on the condition that it be run as a museum. Today this splendid building surrounded by a wall has a rich local history collection with old trade signs, sculpture and antiques, and rooms presenting the old Golden Lion pharmacy, and 18th-19th century presses and newspapers.
Other ideas
For permanent and temporary exhibitions see the list of Museums in the Directory.