If you’re looking for an elegant souvenir or an exquisite present to take home, you might want to visit the gift shop at the Hungarian National Gallery. The exhibition Art Deco Budapest covers the years 1925-1938, reflecting all the glamour, intoxication and elegance of the age in cinema posters, stylish packaging and furnishings. Over 300 pages, its catalogue showcases what there is to see at this summer’s popular exhibition, on display until the end of August.
At the Art Deco Budapest exhibition, there are more than 250 items on show, from advertising and movie posters to chocolate and tea boxes, home furnishings, contemporary fashion photos, small sculptures and clothes sparkling with sequins.
Between the wars, consumer demands increased, luxury and exotic artefacts becoming more available to an ever wider range of society. Advertising proliferated, in shop windows, in newspapers, on packaging and on the sides of buses.
The shops changed, too, with the appearance of modern-looking concrete, glass, neon and Art-Deco furnishings. Companies worked with renowned designers, so the window dressings, interiors and packaging were created by top graphic and industrial artists.
With introductory texts in Hungarian only, the catalogue (HUF 7,800) is the perfect accompaniment to the exhibition, a must for anyone interested in the social history of Budapest.
