A new museum era has begun in Miskolc The Pannon Sea Museum enlivens the life of the city MúzeumCafé 40. author: Gellért Rajcsányi The two recently opened permanent exhibitions of the Pannon Sea Museum, a new section of the Ottó Herman Museum in Miskolc, could give an impetus to the world of Hungary’s natural history museums, which otherwise are struggling with a variety of crises. The development is due to an internationally significant collection of finds, and since […]
The villa of painter György Kádár is today a versatile exhibition space MúzeumCafé 40. author: Nóra Vágvölgyi Busi The former home and studio of the artists György Kádár and Mária Túry in Budapest’s Széher Road has been open to the public since 2005. The refashioned spaces of the house were created by their daughter, who spared neither time nor money to realise her dream. Thus was born the Gallery Lénia, a museum permanently […]
A museum is more than just the display of its own appearance Lessons of a Budapest conference on museum architecture MúzeumCafé 40. author: Marianna Berényi We increasingly hear what architects, aestheticians, museologists and researchers of culture across the world think about museum architecture. However, we only rarely encounter what major international architects think about their own work and the museums they have designed, especially in a conference hall in Hungary – even more so, if the series of presentations is […]
The difficult (museum) memory of the Holocaust “Slay them not, lest my people forget: scatter them by thy power; and bring them down, O Lord our shield!” (Psalm 59, Verse 12) MúzeumCafé 40. author: Zsuzsanna Toronyi, archivist, historian and museum specialist, Director of the Hungarian Jewish Archives Tradition has it that the text of the psalm records David’s prayer to the Lord for help, delivered when he is escaping from Saul. Numerous Jewish and Christian interpretations of the text have been made; of those perhaps the most well-known is that of Augustine of Hippo (354–430) who interpreted the text as reflecting the […]
Wine Museum and Europa City Lordculture in the Liget Budapest project MúzeumCafé 40. author: Dániel Kovács, art historian Lord Cultural Resources is the world’s largest consulting firm specializing in the cultural, heritage and museum sectors. Lord has come a long way since Barry and Gail Dexter Lord founded their company in Toronto 33 years ago. Barry initially became well-known in Canada’s art scene as an editor and reorganiser of the magazine Canadian Art. […]
The old web pages shouldn’t disappear without a trace! Internet presence after restructuring the museums’ network MúzeumCafé 40. author: Marianna Berényi, editor of magyarmuzeumok.hu In recent years we have been used to finding information on the websites of the county museum directorates, which functioned up to the end of 2012, about their member institutes. They varied from one county to another in terms of extent and quality, but overall the most important information sooner or later appeared on the […]
Ambassador of Hungarian Painting Béla Czóbel exhibition at the ArtMill, Szentendre MúzeumCafé 40. author: Gergely Barki, art historian It is not at all difficult to regard Czóbel Béla as one of the greatest artists of modern Hungarian painting. From almost the beginning of his career he played a recognised role in the development of Hungarian art. Yet since his last retrospective, held in the Budapest Kunsthalle in 1971, generations have grown up without […]
Two artists, two destinies, two towns Oeuvres of Tibor Jankay and Ferenc Bolmányi in Békéscsaba and Orosháza MúzeumCafé 40. author: Beatrix Basics, art historian, head of the department of art, Ferenczy Museum The exhibition Friends from Békéscsaba opened in the 2B Gallery, Budapest in autumn 2011. It was perhaps the only attempt to jointly present works by the two painters. Then in November 2013 the Mihály Mun-kácsy Museum in Békéscsaba opened the permanent exhibition of the Jankay–Kolozsváry–Tevan Collection. The museum thus gained a European-standard collection. Ferenc Bolmányi’s […]
Egyptian wall relief fragment from the tomb of Haunefer Behind the scenes secrets revealed by the modern history and interpretation of an ancient object MúzeumCafé 40. author: Éva Liptay, head of the collection, Katalin Anna Kóthay, museum specialist, Collection of Egyptian Art, Museum of Fine Arts In autumn 2013 the Egyptian Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts acquired an art object of outstanding scientific significance: an Old Kingdom wall fragment made of limestone. So far it has been the most significant purchase of an art object in the history of the collection, which was founded in 1934. The European history […]
What makes a public collection public? Is the nation, the state, the local authority or the public the real owner of cultural artefacts? MúzeumCafé 40. author: Beatrix Basics, art historian, head of the department of art, Ferenczy Museum Public collection – what does this expression represent? Let’s begin with the present situation of Hungarian museums and the aspect of the funding body. On its website (see: www.kormány.hu ) the State Secretariat of Culture at the Ministry of Human Resources has this to say: “For centuries public collections have played a key role in […]