Vas, Béla (1876 - 1939)

Applied artist and furniture designer. His life and work remain subjects for future research, and an obituary in Magyar Iparművészet in 1939 gives no personal information. His designs were regularly published in the Applied Arts Association-supported journal Mintalapok, and he also participated in the Association’s Christmas exhibitions. There are records of his appearance at nearly every major domestic interior design exhibition of the time, but none relating to international exhibitions. Around 1908, he established contact with artists of the Gödöllő Art Colony. In 1914, he entered a children’s room into an exhibition of art for children. His furniture maintained some elements of historicist furniture design, particularly Biedermeier, but combined with the idiom of Viennese and Hungarian folk-based Art Nouveau.