Art Nouveau, special touch

Since last autumn, Budapest’s museum and gallery landscape has had a new addition: the House of the Hungarian Secession opened its doors in October 2007. The history of the private initiative dates back ten years, to when the construction company of Tivadar Vad was restoring historical facades near Szabadság tér in District V.

“The residents of the house at Honvéd utca 3 became aware of this work and asked us to collaborate with them to restore their building,” explains Vad’s wife Adél, managing director of the House of the Hungarian Secession.

Bedő House

The building, known as the Bedő House, was built by Emil Vidor in 1903 for the art collector Béla Bedő. It is one of the city’s finest private houses in the Art Nouveau style, but was in a lamentable condition at that time. The Vads restored the brilliant green facade in keeping with the original, and even ordered roof tiles from the Zsolnay porcelain factory, which also supplied the tiles when the house was built in 1903. In return the Vads received 600 square metres of space on the ground floor and in the cellar.

At the time the Vads already had a sizeable collection of everyday Art Nouveau items, ranging from large pieces of furniture to cigarette cases and jewellry. The rooms in the Bedő House provided the ideal framework for making these artifacts accessible to a wider public. “Firstly we asked the state for funding to establish a museum, but we didn’t receive any. So we financed the whole thing ourselves and called it a permanent exhibition instead of a museum. We don’t want anything more from the state,” says Adél Vad.

Emotional refuge

There are numerous items of furniture from the Art Nouveau period like dressers and tables, a complete set of dining room furniture including a table laid for a special occasion and a bedroom with the beds made up. The focus is on emotions. Adél Vad, who gives guided tours of the exhibition, has stories to tell about many of the objects. She points to particular details of the furniture, brings her favourite pieces out of the cupboards and proudly presents a picture by the well-known painter János Vaszary and a standard lamp from the personal property of Bedő, whose descendants still live in the house.

In addition to pure Art Nouveau, the Vads also want to offer a platform for young contemporary artists by organising exhibitions of their work in the cellar areas. There is also a café as well as a small shop with facsimiles and even some historical pieces, mainly ceramics, on sale. The real attraction of a visit to the House of the Hungarian Secession, however, is the personal note of the exhibition, which happily distinguishes it from the uniform feel of many large museums.

House of the Hungarian Secession

District V, Honvéd utca 3

Open Tuesday to Saturday from 10am to 5pm

Tickets cost HUF 600 (HUF 400 with reductions)

Tel. 269-4622 www.magyarszecessziohaza.hu

Gergely Kispál
www.budapesttimes.hu - Tuesday, April 08, 2008