Methodology The ancestral gallery of the Esterházy Mansion in Pápa The history of a singular portrait series MúzeumCafé 51. author: Beatrix Basics The ancestral gallery of the Esterházy Mansion in Pápa is a rare example of a set of paintings which moved to a museum after 1945, but which have been reassembled in their original location, if not exactly in their original environment. Little remains of the aristocratic ancestral galleries of historic Hungary, which is well preserved […]
A family treasury preserved The fine arts collection of the Andrássy Mansion in Betlér author: Beatrix Basics The Andrássy Mansion in Betlér (Betliar, Slovakia) is a rare example of an aristocratic mansion which remained almost untouched even after two world wars. The furnishings, furniture, paintings, the noted art collection and the library’s rarities can still be seen today, just as the Andrássys intended. The most valuable part of the collection is arguably […]
“Around me where I lived only ruins remained” Conversation with restorer, Miklós Szentkirályi MúzeumCafé 51. author: Emőke Gréczi It is worth linking this interview with a visit to the room in the National Gallery where the winged altars are displayed. That would reveal the significance concerning how these large items, after being in tiny pieces in terrible condition locked in boxes, came to life; how the altars were restored; how, from the end […]
What is a mansion good for? Variations for spiritual and physical wellness in the places of a disappeared social class MúzeumCafé 51. author: PéterHamvay The social class for whom mansions were built has definitely disappeared in Hungary. Thus the kind of organic adaptations seen in Italy, Great Britain or even Austria cannot be found. In western Europe the economic infrastructure connected with the buildings has remained, either in part or entirely. In Hungary since the war the functions intended […]
Mansions of the aristocracy – squandered patrimony? Legacy waves of demolition, sacking and rebuilding MúzeumCafé 51. author: Péter Bátonyi, art historian A strong polarisation in terms of social structure characterises Hungary’s past in a large part of the country’s history. The majority of the population was represented by the peasantry, which increasingly became heterogeneous and was entirely excluded from the advantages offered by land ownership for a long time, while the nobility representing the other pole […]
Museum of coexistence and ‘giving a voice’ Jerusalem’s Museum on the Seam MúzeumCafé 50. author: Gréta Süveges One of Jerusalem’s most significant, albeit ‘peripheral’ institutes stands near a not particularly special tram stop. The building itself is striking, since the usual signs indicating many children, typical for an Orthodox neighbourhood – clothes hung out to dry, plastic toy cars – are missing from the museum’s edifice. Instead there is a semi-dilapidated terrace […]
“There is one solution, not to charge for anything” Miklós Tamási, founder and editor of the Fortepan Online Archive MúzeumCafé 50. author: Éva Marton Established five years ago, Fortepan is an online archive of digitized photographs. MiklósTamási and ÁkosSzepessy have been collecting pictorial documents about Hungary which fill a gap. Lost moments, events and buildings are presented in private photos. The photos of family albums, as well as those kept in large storerooms, illuminate the 20th century. In recent […]
Issues of restoring time-based media Béla Kónya, chief conservator at the Ludwig Museum MúzeumCafé 50. author: Judit Jankó BélaKónya’s official title in the Budapest Ludwig Museum – Museum of Contemporary Art is chief conservator, namely he is in charge of artwork conservation. It may not sound very interesting in itself, but what he actually does is very exciting and, in particular, pioneering. He is a restorer looking into the future who is thinking […]
“I’ve always put my foot a bit more inside” Art historian Ferenc Romváry on Csontváry and the history of the Pécs Picture Gallery MúzeumCafé 50. author: Emőke Gréczi Where is TivadarKosztkaCsontváry’s rightful place in art history and in galleries? Has his oeuvre been fully researched and can his works be seen? Art discourse is full of these questions these days as his works are being exhibited in Budapest. Thus it stands to reason to talk about Csontváry with Romváry, the person who played […]
Mummified museums and sclerotic exhibitions The issue of the unchanging nature of permanent exhibitions in the 21st century MúzeumCafé 50. author: Beatrix Basics One of the tasks of museums is preservation, which suggests immutability – objects have to be bequeathed in an unchanging form, like relics, from one generation to another. The museum thus becomes a ‘cemetery of antiquities’. Yet prior to their arrival in museums antiquities had more than one use, more than one meaning. Thus the […]