Budapest Poster Gallery

2nd auction | posters and poster designs

With passe-partout: 23 x 29 cm Without passe-partout: 14,5 x 21 cm. Near mint.

Tempera. This small poster maquette is a valuable relic of one of the most famous Hungarian porcelain manufactories, Herendi. The factory was socialized in 1948, however it didn’t cease operating, moreover it significantly developed. After 1949, similarly to other sectors of Hungarian economy, the reins of export trading were held by the Hungarian government. In the 1960s the economy slowly started to boom and export trade had an important role in this process. During these years trading activities were governed by big state companies. Artex was the company responsible for the export of artistic and decorative objects.
Between 1960 and 1969 Artex was in charge of the continuously growing export of Herendi. This small poster maquette was probably created during these years. This must be the reason why the text on the maquette is in English: it addressed the foreign public.
The nude of a classic ideal alludes to the beauty of the Herend porcelains. The white sculpture appears in front of an intense purple background as a part of a harmonious composition. The typography is just as important as the picture itself, a wrought, hamonious antikva. The maquette was most probably created by Csaba Rékássy (1937-1989) graphic artist, who was mostly known for his copper engravings and illustrations thus when looking at his oeuvre, it is quite surprising, that he created a poster maquette. The most likely reason for is that the theme was close to him as he himself also made ceramics and majolica pictures. He had been fascinated by ceramics since his school years. Even his graduation work was a ceramic wall picture.
The hand-made small tempera painting gives a slight insight to the technical background of designing posters. In the 1960s, the creation of large posters was often preceeded by these small maquettes. The maquettes were hand painted, and in this case, the artist have even drawn and constructed the letters with his hands.
(Anikó Katona)