Kovács Margit Ceramics Museum

Kovács Margit Museum Museum exhibition space (Szentendre, Vastagh György utca 1.; founded: 1973).

Building

It was built in the early 18th century in Baroque style as a salt house. Later it housed a post office, a parish, then became the Dimsitz Vazul merchant house, afterwards the Vastagh family residence, and then a museum. Its façade on Görög Street is decorated with a monk‑brick window row. In 1979 the building, already functioning as a museum, was expanded with a new wing.

As a result of a successful 2008 competition, the museum could be expanded with another multifunctional 110‑square‑metre building wing, based on the plans of Szentendre architect József Kocsis. A ceramic tile was made on the Görög Street façade, whose motifs refer to the work of Kovács Margit and to the Renaissance corner decoration of the neighboring historic building. It was created by Szentendre artists Tamás Asszonyi, Róbert Csíkszentmihályi, Tamás Szabó and Zoltán Szentirmai. The extension was handed over on January 13, 2011.

History

Kovács Margit, the renewer of Hungarian ceramic art, donated in 1972 a significant part of her life's work to the Ferenczy Museum, which had then attained county status; this opened the exhibition space even during the artist’s lifetime, in 1973. The exhibition also includes the artist’s donation contract. In 1974 she also donated works to her hometown Győr, and the Győr City Art Museum maintains a permanent exhibition in memory of the famous native.

Szentendre is a beautifully situated town, its uniquely Mediterranean cityscape owed to the Serbian, Dalmatian and Greek settlers who arrived under the leadership of Patriarch Arsenije III Čarnojević after the expulsion of the Turks in 1690. This sight—the mosaic‑like buildings clinging to the sides of the hills and the beauty of the cheerful, sun‑splashed colours—over time attracted more and more painters. In 1926 the Artists’ Colony, which has since been decisive in shaping Szentendre’s image, was established, offering a new home to the Nagybánya artists who had become “stateless” after Trianon. Nevertheless, the city’s cultural life truly came to national attention only in the 1960s, when it was designated the cultural centre of Pest County. In 1967 the Open‑Air Ethnographic Museum was initiated first, then the Pest County Museums Directorate was created, and alongside the renovation of the old artists’ colony, a new artists’ colony was built on Kálvária Street in 1969. At the same time dozens of small museums opened in the city centre featuring works of local visual artists (Czóbel, Barcsay, etc.), and the Margit Kovács Museum also found its home here at the artist’s request. Her uniquely atmospheric works and the beautifully designed museum environment further increased the museum’s reputation throughout the country. No one missed the Margit Kovács Museum; it is no wonder that for many years, especially in the 1970s, it was the most visited museum in our country.

Organization

From January 2016 the museums in Szentendre are coordinated and integrated by the Ferenczy Museum Center, which includes the Margit Kovács Ceramic Collection as well.

Exhibition

It presents the works of Margit Kovács, but since 1979, two years after the artist’s death, the upstairs gallery has also commemorated Margit Kovács’s home and studio. The exhibition was expanded and rearranged in 2011.