Julia Bathory
Encyclopedia
Júlia Báthory was a Hungarian glass designer
.
Júlia Báthory was born in 1901 in Budapest
into an aristocratic family
. She pursued her high school studies in Debrecen
and Budapest
. She went to Germany in 1924, where she graduated at the Stadtschule für Angewendte Kunst in Munich
, as a student of Adelbert Niemeyer, a painter and porcelain designer, a family relative of the well known Brazilian architect, Oscar Niemeyer
. She also took lectures from local painter Max Müller (not related to the orientalist). Her fellow student was Margit Kovács
, the well known Hungarian ceramic artist, with whom she had a life-long, close friendship.
In the course of her graphic studies she became fascinated by glasswork and in 1929 she started her career as an independent glass-designer in Dessau. In this time she visited the Bauhaus
. Between 1930-31 she returned to Budapest
. In this transitional period she had to work in intellectuel vacuum and under hard conditions. Her exhibition in 1930 in Paris with Imre Huszár, a sculptor, who lived in Paris at that time, was such a success, that she decided to move there. She remained till December 1939.
, she travelled to Italy
, Germany
, Switzerland
and Belgium
.
After her exhibition in 1930, she presented her first independent one in 1933. She received a diplome d'honeur in the 1937 Paris World Fair
. She lived as a member of the Hungarian colony, formed by Endre Rozsda
, Brassaï
, André Kertész
. In the beginning, she shared an apartment together with Andre Kertész
and Margit Kovács
. Also in 1937, an interior column-panneau for Le Printemps
store was made. She was member of the Salon d'Automne
, formed by Matisse
and the fauvists, where Maurice Marinot
and René Lalique
famous French glass-designers, also exhibited. For "La Crémmaiere" she produces her revolutionary flat-glassdesign artifacts. She also makes panneaux for the interior decoration department of the store of Louis Cartier
, at Rue de la Paix. Christofle
was also selling her works in Paris. In 1934 she has already her own atelier, Studio La Girouette, which she forms from an old dairy-hall near Sorbonne
(7bis Rue Laromiguiere, Paris Ve).
She produces her own designs in small series by the Swedish Orrefors Glasbruk. She gets her flat glass boards from Belgium. She also deals with interior decoration: she designs and produces furniture, too. She had a great success not only with her figural panneau, but with her plaquettes, decorated with abstract animals. In 1937 the city of Paris bought her plaquette called The Hunting (La Chasse) and an engraved vase. These two pieces of art were later placed in the collection of modern art of the Louvre
. She achieved her greatest success by working with cold glass, by monumental, sculptural drawing-derived forms, while her contemporaries, Lalique
, Marinot
and his circle made their art in glass-works and treated glass as one block.
Her invention was a unique use of intaglio engraving
, cutting and the artistic use of the sand-blasting technique
. She was able to create outstanding visual effect with their combination.
French critiques started to use for her extraordinary works the expression: "reliefs du verre", which is appropriate to express the monumental style of Julia Báthory. She visited home in 1938 to exhibit and she received a Professional Silver Medal. The same year she became an invited exhibitor of the City of Paris. The following year she reaches overwhelming success overseas. She returns from the New York World Fair
with a diploma of honor.
. The National Organisation of the Applied Artists of Hungary awards her with the Silver Medal, and gets the Gold Medal of the capital city, Budapest
. At thet time she works abroad with interior designer, Elek Falus. She makes great engraved and cut figural panneau, that cover columns for the Zürich
exhibition hall of the Goldberger Textil Company. But at that time she mostly makes ecclesial works. She made other religious images earlier in 1937 for the Exhibition of Religious Art (l'Exposition d'Art Religieux, 1935) in Strassbourg. She received great attention for one of her engraved triptichons.
During the war her Studio was almost completely destroyed. When the war was over, she was often robbed and great number of irreplaceable documents, machines, works of art disappeared. Her return,what she planned as temporary became permanent. But this fact does not break Julia Báthory's enthusiasm to create. In 1949 she elaborates a educational system for glass design for the College of Applied Arts
- today university - winch could not be realized at that time. In 1953 she has the opportunity to bring her unique conception of education into practice in the Secondary School of Fine and Applied Arts.
. Students learn how to work with the elementary hot glass, to use drawing-derived techniques and they discover the whole range of glass- work. This method was not only of great influence on the education of glass-art, but changed the whole structure of secondary art-education in Hungary. At this time her attention turns towards the possibilities of hot glass. She retiers from teaching in 1970.
As an appreciation of her work, she received the title of Excellent Teacher and the Munkácsy prize. In 1958 she exhibits at Brussels World Fair. Since then her work has not been presented to international publicity. She returned from Brussels with a diplome d'honeur. In 1967 and 1968 she was awarded again and so she retires, seemingly for good. Despite of all she worked on in her atelier and organised her lives work.
Her life work has been exhibited in the Hungarian Museum of Applied Arts
in 1992, and it was a monumental summary of the 70 active years of her career. In 1991 she received the Golden Wreath-ornamented Star-order of the Hungarian Republic, and became full member of the Széchenyi István Academy of Literature and Art. Unfortunately she could not receive the Hungarian Heritage Award personally. She died at a great age of 99 years on the third of May in the year 2000.
Since then András Szilágyi, her stepson and Juliana Kovács, her daughter-in-law are running a permanent Museum and continue to run Studio La Girouette. Since September 2000 the Báthory Julia glass-collection is opened to the public in Dömsöd
.
Glass art
Studio glass or glass sculpture is the modern use of glass as an artistic medium to produce sculptures or three-dimensional artworks. Specific approaches include working glass at room temperature cold working, stained glass, working glass in a torch flame , glass beadmaking, glass casting, glass...
.
Júlia Báthory was born in 1901 in Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
into an aristocratic family
Báthory
The Báthory were a Hungarian noble family of the Gutkeled clan. The family rose to significant influence in Central Europe during the late Middle Ages, holding high military, administrative and ecclesiastical positions in the Kingdom of Hungary...
. She pursued her high school studies in Debrecen
Debrecen
Debrecen , is the second largest city in Hungary after Budapest. Debrecen is the regional centre of the Northern Great Plain region and the seat of Hajdú-Bihar county.- Name :...
and Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
. She went to Germany in 1924, where she graduated at the Stadtschule für Angewendte Kunst in Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
, as a student of Adelbert Niemeyer, a painter and porcelain designer, a family relative of the well known Brazilian architect, Oscar Niemeyer
Oscar Niemeyer
Oscar Ribeiro de Almeida Niemeyer Soares Filho is a Brazilian architect specializing in international modern architecture...
. She also took lectures from local painter Max Müller (not related to the orientalist). Her fellow student was Margit Kovács
Margit Kovács
Margit Kovács was a Hungarian ceramist and sculptress.-Biography:Margit Kovács was born in Győr, Hungary on 30 November 1902. She originally wished to become a graphic artist but she grew interested in ceramics in the 1920s and went to study in Vienna with Hertha Bücher, a famous Austrian ceramic...
, the well known Hungarian ceramic artist, with whom she had a life-long, close friendship.
In the course of her graphic studies she became fascinated by glasswork and in 1929 she started her career as an independent glass-designer in Dessau. In this time she visited the Bauhaus
Bauhaus
', commonly known simply as Bauhaus, was a school in Germany that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicized and taught. It operated from 1919 to 1933. At that time the German term stood for "School of Building".The Bauhaus school was founded by...
. Between 1930-31 she returned to Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
. In this transitional period she had to work in intellectuel vacuum and under hard conditions. Her exhibition in 1930 in Paris with Imre Huszár, a sculptor, who lived in Paris at that time, was such a success, that she decided to move there. She remained till December 1939.
The Paris years - 1930 - 1940
These ten years were the most productive years of her lifework. During her years in Paris she visited excavations from the Roman period in the south of FranceOccitania
Occitania , also sometimes lo País d'Òc, "the Oc Country"), is the region in southern Europe where Occitan was historically the main language spoken, and where it is sometimes still used, for the most part as a second language...
, she travelled to Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
and Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
.
After her exhibition in 1930, she presented her first independent one in 1933. She received a diplome d'honeur in the 1937 Paris World Fair
Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne (1937)
The Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne was held from May 25 to November 25, 1937 in Paris, France...
. She lived as a member of the Hungarian colony, formed by Endre Rozsda
Endre Rozsda
- Life :Rozsda was born in Mohács, south Hungary on 18 November 1913. At the age of 18 he started to paint in the school of Vilmos Aba-Novak. He had his first solo exhibition at the Tamas Gallery in Budapest in 1936, with great success...
, Brassaï
Brassaï
Brassaï was a Hungarian photographer, sculptor, and filmmaker who rose to international fame in France in the 20th century. He was one of the numerous Hungarian artists who flourished in Paris beginning between the World Wars...
, André Kertész
André Kertész
André Kertész , born Kertész Andor, was a Hungarian-born photographer known for his groundbreaking contributions to photographic composition and the photo essay. In the early years of his career, his then-unorthodox camera angles and style prevented his work from gaining wider recognition...
. In the beginning, she shared an apartment together with Andre Kertész
André Kertész
André Kertész , born Kertész Andor, was a Hungarian-born photographer known for his groundbreaking contributions to photographic composition and the photo essay. In the early years of his career, his then-unorthodox camera angles and style prevented his work from gaining wider recognition...
and Margit Kovács
Margit Kovács
Margit Kovács was a Hungarian ceramist and sculptress.-Biography:Margit Kovács was born in Győr, Hungary on 30 November 1902. She originally wished to become a graphic artist but she grew interested in ceramics in the 1920s and went to study in Vienna with Hertha Bücher, a famous Austrian ceramic...
. Also in 1937, an interior column-panneau for Le Printemps
Printemps
Printemps is a French department store .The flagship Printemps store is located on Boulevard Haussmann in the IXe arrondissement of Paris along with other well-known department stores like Galeries Lafayette. There are other Printemps stores in Paris and throughout France...
store was made. She was member of the Salon d'Automne
Salon d'Automne
In 1903, the first Salon d'Automne was organized by Georges Rouault, André Derain, Henri Matisse, Angele Delasalle and Albert Marquet as a reaction to the conservative policies of the official Paris Salon...
, formed by Matisse
Henri Matisse
Henri Matisse was a French artist, known for his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known primarily as a painter...
and the fauvists, where Maurice Marinot
Maurice Marinot
Maurice Marinot was a French artist. He was a painter considered a member of Les Fauves, and then a major artist in glass....
and René Lalique
René Lalique
René Jules Lalique was a French glass designer known for his creations of perfume bottles, vases, jewellery, chandeliers, clocks and automobile hood ornaments. He was born in the French village of Ay on 6 April 1860 and died 5 May 1945...
famous French glass-designers, also exhibited. For "La Crémmaiere" she produces her revolutionary flat-glassdesign artifacts. She also makes panneaux for the interior decoration department of the store of Louis Cartier
Louis Cartier
Louis Cartier was a famous French watchmaker and businessman known worldwide for elegant and extravagant watch designs. He was passionate about mechanical pocket watches and had the goal of creating his own line of timepieces...
, at Rue de la Paix. Christofle
Christofle
Christofle is a manufacturer of fine silver flatware and home accessories based in France since 1830. They are renowned for their sterling, silverplate and stainless flatware. Among Christofle's product lines are silver picture frames, crystal vases and glassware, porcelain dinnerware and silver...
was also selling her works in Paris. In 1934 she has already her own atelier, Studio La Girouette, which she forms from an old dairy-hall near Sorbonne
Sorbonne
The Sorbonne is an edifice of the Latin Quarter, in Paris, France, which has been the historical house of the former University of Paris...
(7bis Rue Laromiguiere, Paris Ve).
She produces her own designs in small series by the Swedish Orrefors Glasbruk. She gets her flat glass boards from Belgium. She also deals with interior decoration: she designs and produces furniture, too. She had a great success not only with her figural panneau, but with her plaquettes, decorated with abstract animals. In 1937 the city of Paris bought her plaquette called The Hunting (La Chasse) and an engraved vase. These two pieces of art were later placed in the collection of modern art of the Louvre
Louvre
The Musée du Louvre – in English, the Louvre Museum or simply the Louvre – is one of the world's largest museums, the most visited art museum in the world and a historic monument. A central landmark of Paris, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement...
. She achieved her greatest success by working with cold glass, by monumental, sculptural drawing-derived forms, while her contemporaries, Lalique
René Lalique
René Jules Lalique was a French glass designer known for his creations of perfume bottles, vases, jewellery, chandeliers, clocks and automobile hood ornaments. He was born in the French village of Ay on 6 April 1860 and died 5 May 1945...
, Marinot
Maurice Marinot
Maurice Marinot was a French artist. He was a painter considered a member of Les Fauves, and then a major artist in glass....
and his circle made their art in glass-works and treated glass as one block.
Her invention was a unique use of intaglio engraving
Glass engraving
Glass engraving is a form of decorative glasswork that involves engraving a glass surface or object. It is distinct from glass art in the narrow sense, which refers to moulding and blowing glass....
, cutting and the artistic use of the sand-blasting technique
Abrasive blasting
Abrasive blasting is the operation of forcibly propelling a stream of abrasive material against a surface under high pressure to smooth a rough surface, roughen a smooth surface, shape a surface, or remove surface contaminants. A pressurized fluid, typically air, or a centrifugal wheel is used to...
. She was able to create outstanding visual effect with their combination.
French critiques started to use for her extraordinary works the expression: "reliefs du verre", which is appropriate to express the monumental style of Julia Báthory. She visited home in 1938 to exhibit and she received a Professional Silver Medal. The same year she became an invited exhibitor of the City of Paris. The following year she reaches overwhelming success overseas. She returns from the New York World Fair
1939 New York World's Fair
The 1939–40 New York World's Fair, which covered the of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park , was the second largest American world's fair of all time, exceeded only by St. Louis's Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904. Many countries around the world participated in it, and over 44 million people...
with a diploma of honor.
Moving back to Hungary - 1940
She remains in Paris until 1939, but in order to save her studio, she moves it in January 1940 to Budapest. She works continuously until 1944, when the operations of war reach the territory of Hungary. In 1940 she receives a Gold Medal at the Milano Trienale. In 1942-3 she gets awards from the Ministry of Culture. In the Second Hungarian Exhibition of Applied Arts, she was awarded by the city of KassaKošice
Košice is a city in eastern Slovakia. It is situated on the river Hornád at the eastern reaches of the Slovak Ore Mountains, near the border with Hungary...
. The National Organisation of the Applied Artists of Hungary awards her with the Silver Medal, and gets the Gold Medal of the capital city, Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
. At thet time she works abroad with interior designer, Elek Falus. She makes great engraved and cut figural panneau, that cover columns for the Zürich
Zürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
exhibition hall of the Goldberger Textil Company. But at that time she mostly makes ecclesial works. She made other religious images earlier in 1937 for the Exhibition of Religious Art (l'Exposition d'Art Religieux, 1935) in Strassbourg. She received great attention for one of her engraved triptichons.
During the war her Studio was almost completely destroyed. When the war was over, she was often robbed and great number of irreplaceable documents, machines, works of art disappeared. Her return,what she planned as temporary became permanent. But this fact does not break Julia Báthory's enthusiasm to create. In 1949 she elaborates a educational system for glass design for the College of Applied Arts
Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design
The Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design , former Hungarian University of Arts and Design, is located in Budapest, Hungary. The university is committed to training traditional artist-craftsmen, as well as architects, designers and visual communication designers...
- today university - winch could not be realized at that time. In 1953 she has the opportunity to bring her unique conception of education into practice in the Secondary School of Fine and Applied Arts.
Julia Bathory, the teacher 1953 - 1970
What she has worked out was a unique initiative. That was the very place where she constructed the whole basis of theoretical and practical education of glass-design in Hungary. The system is similar to the Kodály-methodKodály Method
The Kodály Method, also referred to as the Kodály Concept, is an approach to music education developed in Hungary during the mid-twentieth century by Zoltán Kodály...
. Students learn how to work with the elementary hot glass, to use drawing-derived techniques and they discover the whole range of glass- work. This method was not only of great influence on the education of glass-art, but changed the whole structure of secondary art-education in Hungary. At this time her attention turns towards the possibilities of hot glass. She retiers from teaching in 1970.
As an appreciation of her work, she received the title of Excellent Teacher and the Munkácsy prize. In 1958 she exhibits at Brussels World Fair. Since then her work has not been presented to international publicity. She returned from Brussels with a diplome d'honeur. In 1967 and 1968 she was awarded again and so she retires, seemingly for good. Despite of all she worked on in her atelier and organised her lives work.
Last years - 1990-2000
The artistic resurrection, for Julia Báthory was brought in 1989 with the change of the political and economical system. The 88 year old artiste sets up her Studio again with the help of her adopted son, András Szilágyi, and her daughter in law, Juliana Kovács. A great, still unfinished work begins, Julia Báthory decides to recreate the works lost or destroyed during the last decades. The Studio reproduces these disappeared works and carries out the designs which were made by the artist.Her life work has been exhibited in the Hungarian Museum of Applied Arts
Museum of Applied Arts (Budapest)
The Museum of Applied Arts is a museum in Budapest, Hungary. This Art Nouveau building was built between 1893 and 1896 to the plans of Ödön Lechner and Gyula Pártos...
in 1992, and it was a monumental summary of the 70 active years of her career. In 1991 she received the Golden Wreath-ornamented Star-order of the Hungarian Republic, and became full member of the Széchenyi István Academy of Literature and Art. Unfortunately she could not receive the Hungarian Heritage Award personally. She died at a great age of 99 years on the third of May in the year 2000.
Since then András Szilágyi, her stepson and Juliana Kovács, her daughter-in-law are running a permanent Museum and continue to run Studio La Girouette. Since September 2000 the Báthory Julia glass-collection is opened to the public in Dömsöd
Dömsöd
-References:...
.