KOVÁCS, Margit
(1902, Győr - 1977, Budapest)



Margit Kovács prepared for her career as a ceramist during her studies in schools in Hungary and abroad. She studied graphic art in the private school of Álmos Jaschik from 1924 to 26, and then china painting in the School of Applied Arts. She learnt the fundamentals of the ceramist craft in the pottery workshop of Herta Bücher in Vienna in 1926-28. She developed her skills further in the Staatschule für Angewandte Kunst of Munich as a ceramist and she studied plastic modelling in sculpture as well in the same institute. During her study trip to Copenhagen in 1932 she became familiar with the making of functional objects of common use, and in 1933 she learnt the technique of modelling chamotte figures and porcelain genre figures. Combining the technique of the potter's wheel with sensitive plastic modelling Margit Kovács started to create a series of works of art - following the completion of her studies - that successfully removed the traditional boundaries between fine arts and applied arts.

Her artistic career began in the early thirties with modelled, terracotta figurines, relieves and wheeled ornamental pieces that were followed by ornamental pieces of more individualistic tone that assimilated more conventionalised wall-pictures with folkloristic effects from the second half of the thirties. A tendency of using geometric shapes became more and more apparent in her figures and manifested itself in the use of potter-wheeled spin-forms. She simplified the small figures to the form of the cone, while she started to render a column-like shape to larger figures. She enriched the potter-wheeled form with decorative ornamentation and in addition to using glazed finish coatings she started experimenting with dull coatings as well.

In the fifties the increase of folkloristic inspiration can be observed in her ceramic pieces that approached the world of the rustic and rural through variegated genre themes. In addition to epical story-telling relieves and wall pictures of 'tableau vivant' nature she also started to make realistic statuettes and large figures made on the potter's wheel with great virtuosity. She change her preferred material, terracotta to chamotte in the sixties and seventies and relying on more expressive modelling and massive shaping she drew from myths, tales and legends in her search for new themes. The extremely rich oeuvre of Margit Kovács and her art that radiates intimate humanity, represents a unique voice in our contemporary ceramic art.



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