Category Archives: Museum

The Secessionists

Take my word for it, Secessionist Art is really cool. It was one of the Art Nouveau disciplines that was popular between 1890 and 1910 and slightly predates Art Deco and was huge in Budapest. This modernist artist group included the likes of Gustav Klimt and Karoly Lotz,  They were renegades who separated from the support of official academic art and its administrations during this period. 

The Kiss - Gustav Klimt

The Kiss – Gustav Klimt

Woman Bathing - Kaloty

Woman Bathing – Karoly Lotz

Budapest, like both Berlin and Vienna, was a hot bed for this new and exciting art movement. Some of the country’s most famous architects designed buildings in this style. Some of them were inspired by traditional Hungarian decorative designs, Transylvanian traditions, or Far East (Indian or Syrian) styles.

One of our favorites is the Museum of Applied Arts, designed by Odon Lechner and Gyula Partos from 1893 – 1896. It is the third oldest applied arts museum in the world. It is currently showing a very exciting exhibit of Hungarian Posters from the 1920s called Bolder Than Painting.

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AppliedArts12

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AppliedArts9AppliedArts8AppliedArts6AppliedArts5AppliedArts4AppliedArts3AppliedArts1More Art Nouveau Architecture


The Cold War

25 years ago this poster would have landed you in prison.

25 years ago this poster would have landed you in prison.

For most Americans, unless of course you happened to work for the CIA or were unfortunate enough to have friends or relatives behind the Iron Curtain, the Cold War always remained a sort of conceptual notion, like the Boogie Man hiding in the closet that could burst forth at any moment and annihilate us all with hundreds of unseen thermonuclear devices, more of a threat then something real and tangible.

Not so for the Hungarians. After the Soviets drove the Nazis out at the end of WWII, the Communists held this place in a grip that was total and absolute and lasted over 40 years. In Hungary the Iron Curtain was not some scary ethereal miasma. Here it was very real, fashioned out of guns, spies, interrogation, propaganda and fear.

Iron Curtain Sculpture

Iron Curtain Sculpture

Capitalism, with all it’s pluses and minuses, is now the system du jour and virtually all signs of Soviet domination have been eradicated with a few notable exceptions. Flea markets, where the sale of Soviet era paraphernalia, i.e. coats, hats, pins, etc., is an ongoing enterprise, and two museums, the House of Terror Museum and Momento Park, stand as constant reminders of life under the Communist boot.

The House of Terror, located at Andrássy útca 60, is a memorial to the victims of the fascist and communist dictatorial regimes who were detained, interrogated, tortured or killed in this building.

The House of Terror

The House of Terror

Pictures of victims stretch the length of the building.

Pictures of victims stretch the length of the building.

 The Nazi’s took possession of this very fashionable location during WWII. When the Soviets and Hungarian fascist Arrow Cross Party took over, they expanded it to include almost the entire block and converted the basement into a labyrinth of cells and interrogation rooms.

Iron Curtain Sculpture

Iron Curtain Sculpture

Memento Park is an open air museum about 20 minutes southeast of Budapest. It is filled with monumental statues from Hungary’s Communist period (1949–1989).

Main Entrance

Main Entrance

Cubist monument of Marx and Engels.

Cubist monument of Marx and Engels.

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Onward Comrades

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Hungarian-Soviet Friendship Memorial

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Together we will dominate the world.

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Monument to the Martyrs of the Counter-Revolution

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Break Free of Imperialist Tyranny.

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The Republic of Councils Monument

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The Republic of Councils Monument

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The Hungarian Fighters in the Spanish International Brigades Memorial.

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Red Army Soldier

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Lenin Relief

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Soviet Heroic Memorial

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Soviet Heroic Memorial

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Most notably absent are any statues of Stalin. Apparently all of them were destroyed after the Soviets fled in 1989. All that remains are Papa Joe’s boots.

Stalin's Boots

Stalin’s Boots

And finally, just for scale.

Wendi is unintimidated.

Wendi is unintimidated.