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MUSEUM OF APPLIED ARTS
IPARMŰVÉSZETI MÚZEUM
The museum of applied arts in Budapest was the third museum to be built in Europe after fellow institutions in London (1857) and Vienna (1864). In 1872 the Hungarian Parliament voted a sum of 50.000 HUF to buy "industrial objects" for the next year's World Exhibition in Vienna, and thus the base of the collection of the future "Museum of Applied Arts" was established. The increasing collection was held in the building of the National Museum between 1874 and 1877 and was exhibited in its staircase, after which the collection was moved to the building of the Old Art Gallery (Sugár út 69).
The financial possibility of building an independent institution came in 1890. First, a land of 1552 square-fathom was bought in the area surrounding by Üllõi street - Kinizsi street - Rákos street (today Hõgyes Endre street) and it was later increased by further purchases. Then in 1890 the government called for a tender to build a palace which met all requirements and was also suitable to hold the School of Applied Arts that had been founded in 1880. The first prize was won by a series of plans, by Ödön Lechner and Gyula Pártos, mottoed "To the East Hungarian!" ("Keletre magyar!"), but the building authorization was handed out only in 1893. The opening ceremony of the palace was held as the final attraction of the Millennium celebrations on 25 October 1896.
There were heated debates on the palace ever since it was opened. By now its significance in the line of the international Secession and in the life-work of Lechner is an unquestionable fact. The most modern static technology with which the building was constructed all served the function, the artistically formed mass and the harmony of the individual decorational forms (just like the rolled steel poles of the main hall - that was not even hid away from the eyes of the visitors - has become an ornamental lace). The dome - decorated with Zsolnay ceramics - catches the eyes of the visitors from afar, while the hall of the main entrance gate with its fabulous decoration invites them inside. And still, because of those opposing, in 1920 the inside paintings (Károly Miksa Reissmann) were drastically whitewashed, leaving only two rooms and the wind-catcher to survive. During World War II the opened hall of the main entrance, the main dome, the glass hall and the corner dome on Hõgyes street were badly destroyed. The war damages were restored in 1949.
The foundations of the collection to be owned by the Museum of Applied Arts, itself established in 1872, were laid down with the acquisitions made at the Vienna World Exhibition of 1873. In the decades around the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, donations made by private collectors and endowments as well as further purchases extended the collection, whose structural arrangement follows the logic of object, material and craft categories.
The furniture collection
The furniture collection, consisting of nearly four thousand items, mainly comprises various pieces of furniture proper, but also includes other types of woodwork such as honey-cake moulds, blue-dyeing plates, figurines etc.
The fine metalwork collection
This collection counts about ten thousands pieces today, mainly by foreign and in a smaller part by Hungarian craftsmen, with the pre-Renaissance period represented by just a few rarities
The ceramics and glassware collection
Consisting of about 25.000 pieces, the collection of ceramics and glassware accounts for more than a fourth of the entire material held in the museum
The collection of textiles and garments
The museum's collection of European textiles gives a comprehensive picture of virtually every important technique used by the craft from Roman times to the 20th century
For more information visit www.imm.hu
Source: www.museum.hu
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