ALBERT Ádám: My Appropriations (József Rippl-Rónai), 2022
4 round enamel panels: Ø: 29 cm / 3 pieces, Ø: 19 cm, mounted on hollow structural section
overall dimensions: 85 x 112 cm
Albert’s three Bonyhád enamel variations are based on József Rippl-Rónai’s (1861–1927) decorative, art nouveau-inspired plate designs from the turn of the century, which were used for manufacture by Vilmos Zsolnay’s porcelain factory in Pécs. The designs were created for the dining room of Count Tivadar Andrássy’s palace in Buda [1], the entire interior of which—including glass ceiling, windows, furniture, fireplace, lamps, embroidered tapestries, ceramics, and glassware—were designed by Rippl-Rónai (KEMKI ADK 5118/1950/I/ 132, 134, 142). The butterfly in the fourth piece reproduces the main motif of the cover design for the 1925 edition of Zsigmond Móricz’s book Butterfly – Idyll, published by Athenaeum, Budapest (KEMKI ADK 26007_2020_39a).
By turning their surfaces from concave to convex, Albert “inverts” these compact elements of a past time—which have only survived in fragments—and applies them to the right-angled junction points of the metal support structure, while using a method of motif appropriation and profaning object shaping that offers us a refreshing and cheerful glimpse at the possibility of a (more) ordinary, everyday application. At the same time, the pop gesture of transcribing these patterns onto enamelled pot lids bears a distant—but perhaps nevertheless real—kinship to Gyula Pauer’s works from 1968, also from Bonyhád, which use washbasin- and ladle-forms.[2]
[1] See the texts by Ágnes Prékopa, Éva Csenkey and Orsolya Kovács in the catalogue of Rippl-Rónai’s 1998 oeuvre exhibition (Rippl-Rónai József gyűjteményes kiállítása [Oeuvre Exhibition of József Rippl-Rónai]. Ed. Ildikó Nagy, Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest, 1998, 91-111; 464–483); and János Horváth: Rippl-Rónai József iparművészeti munkássága, az Andrássy-ebédlő [József Rippl-Rónai’s Works of Applied Art: The Andrássy Dining Room]. Rippl-Rónai Museum, Kaposvár, 2013, URL: http://smmi.hu/konyvek/pdf/203.pdf; see also: see also: https://mng.hu/utvonaltippek/parizstol-kaposvarig-rippl-ronai-jozsef-muveszete/
[2] Burnt Geometry: Experiments in Enamel Art at the Bonyhád Factory (1968-1972). Ed. Róna Kopeczky, acb ResearchLab, Museum of Fine Arts Budapest, 2019, 90-96.
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