Sideboard

Lajos Kozma (1884–1948) is a significant character of Hungarian applied arts and architecture of the 20th century. He was involved in interior and furniture design from the beginning of his career. As a peer of Béla Lajta, he designed one of his first significant works, the interior design of the Rózsavölgy House at Szervita tér, Budapest.

In 1913, he clearly launched his interior design firm, Budapesti Műhely (Budapest Workshop) under the influence of the European workshops, the Wiener Werkstätte and the Werkbund-movement, involving some enthusiastic and smart masters. Their goal was to educate the bourgeois audience with simple, artistic, high quality furniture and other equipment.

More detailed studies of folk art directed him to the rich, powerful Baroque of the peasants, further strengthened by his experience gained during his travels in The Netherlands and in Schleswig-Holstein, studying bourgeois Baroque interiors. The joy of the shapes overwhelmed him the previous simplicity and closed, straight lines of his works were gradually replaced by the baroque-like dynamics. Thanks to the demand of the bourgeois class that started to become wealthier again at the beginning of the twenties, and desired representation, comfort and luxury, Kozma received increasingly more interior design orders. His interest turned from graphics towards furniture and the interior. His furniture, characterised by ever richer details and the sometimes exaggerated, theatrical equipment was all executed in great detail and delicateness, featuring bold, dynamic lines, carved, painted and sometimes gilt details. This style period of his work, frequently called “Kozma-Baroque” was example-setting with several followers both in Hungary and abroad.

The Museum of Applied Arts safeguards an entire dining room furniture set (cupboard, table and chairs) designed by Kozma in 1919 for the Budapesti Muhely. The cupboard of the set was presented by the German journal Innendekoration in 1921, in an article dedicated to the Budapesti Muhely and Kozma's interior-designs (see here).