“Classic Kozma: The Budapest Workshop and Lajos Kozma” is a remarkable exhibition honouring this Hungarian renaissance man who died 70 years ago. After first coming to prominence during Budapest’s golden age before World War I – when fanciful Art Nouveau buildings were constructed citywide to inject cutting-edge creativity into the city scene – Lajos Kozma launched the Budapest Workshop in 1913 to revitalise home décor with top-quality furnishings engraved with timeless Hungarian folk-art decorations.
Working together with a select handful of other fine craftsmen, Kozma established the Budapest Workshop as a showroom with complete mock interiors of dining rooms, bedrooms, offices, and other furniture sets – and the “Classic Kozma” exhibition features a rare collection of surviving pieces from this innovative firm, arranged in a similar showcase style. Many of the refined furnishings were obviously created to transcend mere interior design and instead be bona-fide works of art, as evidenced by their year of creation being prominently inscribed amid the delicate designs.
These designs go far beyond adding ornamental detail to chairs, sofas, wardrobes and myriad other furniture items created in the Budapest Workshop. The curvaceously flowing patterns feature painstakingly carved peacocks, grapevines, goblets, roses and geometrical motifs all exuding classic Hungarian culture. Human characters seemingly come alive on some pieces – one bookcase in the exhibition features a 19th-century betyár outlaw hoisting a sword while a maiden dances nearby, her skirt billowing as though in mid-spin.
Beyond the fascinating furniture, the exhibition also includes colourful design sketches with handwritten notes scribbled by their measurements, alongside black-and-white photos of the Budapest Workshop interior during its heyday, antique books that Kozma illustrated for celebrated Hungarian writers like Endre Ady and Frigyes Karinthy, and plenty of English-language placards providing extensive details about Kozma’s globally renowned work.
Any fan of antiques, Art Nouveau or Hungarian folklore will be enchanted by the storytelling furniture of Lajos Kozma, who prolifically created refined artworks that provide much more than a place to sit, sleep and store clothes. By establishing the Budapest Workshop, Kozma founded a tradition of vivid design that still influences Magyar artists today.
“Classic Kozma: The Budapest Workshop and Lajos Kozma”
September 5 – December 2 Kunsthalle (Műcsarnok) Chamber Hall More details
Legyetek ott első városi piknikünkön!
Gyertek, és töltsünk el egy vidám napsütéses tavaszi napot együtt a városligeti fák lombjai között május 1-jén, ahol day-time piknik, workshopok, sok szuper food truck és dizájnvásár is vár mindenkit.
Ünnepeljük együtt a tavaszt, a találkozásokat és azt a pezsgést, amiért annyira szeretjük Budapestet!
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