TURKISH INFLUENCES ON HUNGARIAN CERAMIC

The exhibition titled “The Art of Fire- Turkish Influences on Hungarian Glass and Ceramic Art” opened at the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts, both drew a panorama of contemporary Hungarian ceramics and glass art and revealed the Turkish-Ottoman influence on traditional ceramics.

FATMA BATUKAN BELGE

On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Hungary and Turkiye, 2024 was declared the Year of Hungarian-Turkish Culture, and over the past year, Hungarian culture has gained new visibility with more than 170 events in 18 cities. One of these events was the exhibition titled “The Art of Fire- Turkish Influences on Hungarian Glass and Ceramic Art” opened at the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts. The exhibition, which was on view from November 15 to December 18, 2024, was jointly organized by the Bohus-Lugossy Foundation for Contemporary Glass Arts and the Foundation for Contemporary Ceramic Arts. The Hungarian Ministry of Culture and Innovation, the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Turkiye, the Hungarian Academy of Arts, Synergy Construction, the Gul Baba Heritage Foundation, the Liszt Institute- Hungarian Cultural Center Istanbul, the Veszprem Municipality and the University of Pannonia also contributed.

Marton Strohner Palma Babos

Györg Fusz Zsolt Jozsef Simon

The title of the exhibition specially prepared for Istanbul, “The Art of Fire,” was borrowed from an exhibition held at the Getty Museum in the United States nearly twenty years ago. Referring to that exhibition, which focused on the interactions between European and Islamic art, the Istanbul exhibition revealed the connection between Hungarian ceramics and glass art and Turkish-Ottoman-Islamic ceramics and glass art. The ceramic works in the exhibition have never been brought together in this context before. The selection shows the changes and developments of Hungarian ceramics over the past several centuries and the high quality of contemporary ceramic art.

The influence of Iznik tiles

Curator of glass art Dr. Andras Szilagyi (Bohus-Lugossy Foundation for Contemporary Glass Art) and curator of ceramic art Prof. György Fusz (Foundation for Contemporary Ceramic Art) say that the influence of Turkish art on Hungarian applied arts is greater and more deep-rooted than its European counterparts: “The influence of Turkish art has shaped Hungarian folk art very quickly and very permanently, both through technique and representational methods. The patterns of Anatolian textiles and Iznik ceramics that came to the palace of the Prince of Transylvania, an Ottoman vassal, in the 17th century were assimilated in the region and the people made this style a part of their own artistic expression.” Parts of the Sarospatak Castle in Transylvania and the palace of Prince Gábor Bethlen in Gyulafehérvar are decorated with Iznik tiles. We know that along with the tiles, masters who knew how to lay tiles were also brought from Anatolia.

Zsolnay

In the 19th century, thanks to studio potters who emerged in Europe, Iznik tiles were reinterpreted, and especially for these artists who were inspired by the ceramic traditions of great cultures such as Islam, China and Japan under the influence of historicism, Iznik tiles became an important source of inspiration. Vilmos Zsolnay, who founded the porcelain factory bearing his name in Pécs, Hungary, also produced Iznik imitations in the 1870s using the floral patterns on late 16th century Iznik tiles, olive green and eggplant purple. Due to the intertwining of motifs belonging to two cultures in metalwork and embroidery in Hungary, which remained under Ottoman rule for a long time, it can be said that Zsolnay's works were based on folk traditions, beyond historicism, unlike other European ceramicists. The folk pottery from the Sarkoz region, immediately surrounding the Ottoman palanka Ete, which was exhibited in the Arts of Fire exhibition, also reflected the typical richness of form and pattern in the 19th century.

Herend Porcelain

The establishment of several large ceramic factories, which are still in production today and have an international reputation, is based on the great development of the Hungarian economy in the second half of the 19th century. Like Zsolnay, the Herend Porcelain Factory was also founded at that time. Both factories played an important role in the development of contemporary Hungarian ceramics and the careers of many artists. Examples bearing the signature of these two factories were also included in the exhibition.

Creative production from the past to the future

The large part of the exhibition at the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts consisted of examples of contemporary Hungarian ceramics and glass art. Most of the ceramic works were taken from the collections of the Foundation for Contemporary Ceramic Art and the International Ceramic Studio. Alongside iconic works by the most distinguished Hungarian artists of the last twenty years, there were also very new works from a couple of years ago. The most distinctive features of Hungarian ceramic art are the artists' relationship with the material, the creative production process and the sense of struggle inherited from its history, and the Art of Fire exhibition made it possible to see all of these features.

The glass works exhibited in the section included some products at the intersection of Hungarian folk art and industrial history, works by important artists of the 19th and 20th centuries, and examples of contemporary glass art. Rare historical examples were exhibited from Paradsasvar, where glass production dates back to the 13th century; Erdel, where high-quality glass is produced; Karcag, which holds patents for original applications, and Veszprim, where the German glasswork tradition is kept alive.

Original Hungarian glass art, which dates back to the 1930s, was initiated by the work of the first independent glass artist Julia Bathory. Bathory founded the first glass art department in Europe in 1952, ten years before the studio glass movement in the USA. The works of some of Bathory’s important students, such as Erzsébet Hamza, were also shown in ‘The Art of Fire’. Since the early 2000s, many internationally recognized artists have represented Hungarian glass art.

The success of the curators who chose works suitable for the rustic space of the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts with its brick and stone walls and arches for this exhibition should be particularly emphasized. “We want to give a new content to the relationship between the ceramic and glass arts of two cultures that were separated by the storms of history for the 21st century and to show the future achievements of our contemporary ceramic and glass arts as well as the historical past,” they said, “In this way, the dialogue between the genres can once again be active as it was in the past, and the ‘art of fire’ can mutually grow from each other’s achievements.”