Venue: Museum of Applied Arts, Budapest, Time of Opening: 19 November 2014. Open until May 2015. Organising Institutions: Museum of Applied Arts, Insitute of Art History, Research Centre for the Humanities, Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

lechner

This exhibition presents the whole scope of the work of the architect Ödön Lechner (1845–1914). Special attention is paid to five major works, candidates for UNESCO  World Heritage Site status: the Kecskemét City Hall, the parish church of Budapest-Kőbánya, the Museum of Applied Arts, the Institute of Geology, and the Postal Savings Bank.  Visitors can familiarise themselves with these through the architect’s original plans and drawings, as well as period and modern photographs. Working drawings of the ornaments so crucial to Lechner’s work, the publications which inspired him, and examples of the Zsolnay ceramic in which they were realized are also presented. One of the rooms evokes the world of the Japan Coffee House, Lechner’s second home, another acommodates a panoramic movie of his major works.

The exhibition is accompanied by a book, which consists of an introductory essay, pictures and the list of exhibited objects. The pictures, especially numerous, are partly reproductions of Lechner’s plans and drawings, partly modern photographs, specifically produced for the book and exhibition. The book, a joint publication of the Museum of Applied Arts and the Institute of Art History, Research Centre for the Humanities of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, coordinated and edited by József Sisa of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, will be published in both a Hungarian and an English version.

Project manager: Zsombor Jékely

Chief scientific advisor to the exhibition: József Sisa

Scientific advisory board: Tamás Csáki, András Hadik, Magdolna Lichner, Pál Ritoók

Project assistant: Attila Brunner

Design and installation: Zoboki–Demeter & Társak Építésziroda, Dobozda Műterem

Exhibition graphics: Levente Sipos

Chief Sponsor of the Exhibition: Hungarian National Bank

institutions and persons lending their artworks:  Budapest City Archives; Budapest History Museum, Kiscell Museum; Budapest – Kőbánya, Szent László Parish; Geological and Geophysical Institute of Hungary; Gyula Forster National Centre for Cultural Heritage Management; Gyula Forster National Centre for Cultural Heritage Management – Hungarian Museum of Architecture; Hungarian National Museum; Hungarian University of Fine Arts, Library; Janus Pannonius Museum, Pécs; Metropolitan Ervin Szabó Library; Museum of Fine Arts – Hungarian National Gallery; National Széchényi Library; Postal Museum; Rippl-Rónai Museum, Kaposvár; The Hungarian National Archives – National Archives of Hungary; The Hungarian National Archives – Archives of Bács-Kiskun County; The Hungarian National Archives – Archives of Baranya County; The Hungarian National Archives – Archives of Csongrád County; Boldizsár Szmrecsányi.