“Glass is the result of a transformation between two extreme states of matter. The hot, molten medium solidifies into forms reminiscent of crystals. Once cooled, it reveals itself through brilliance, optical play, and reflections. The properties of these two states, permeated by colours and light and enriched by thought, may, in skilled hands, even become soul-warming.” Glass Artist László Hefter
The oeuvre of László Hefter occupies a distinctive position in both international and Hungarian glass painting. He has played a significant role in establishing glass painting in Hungary as an independent and free form of artistic expression. This applies equally to mural and architectural stained glass – coloured, painted, and leaded windows – as well as to autonomous ‘cabinet’ glass paintings. His contribution has been decisive in enabling this long-neglected art form, understood through the interrelations of master and apprentice, craft and art, to re-emerge on a path capable of renewal, both in the restoration of historical stained-glass works and in the creation of new ones. In his mural works, respect for the classical values of Hungarian and international glass painting is combined with a contemporary, individual formal, practical, and technical approach that responds directly to the present and serves as a source of unprecedented new content.
He is one of the continuously active and defining contemporary figures in his field. This is evidenced by his new glass artworks installed in public buildings and spaces, his lyrical autonomous studio works, and his activities as a restoration and heritage conservation expert. His culture-building public engagement is demonstrated by the launch in Győr, in 1994, of a school-level glassmaking programme connected to applied arts education, which he founded; by his journalistic activities; and by the glass art centre and gallery he established in Pannonhalma in 2007, on a World Heritage site, through personal initiative and private means. Today, this institution functions as an elegant and generous cultural centre in both its appearance and services, representing Hungarian applied arts with distinction in international comparison, with particular emphasis on glass art.
The work of László Hefter offers several teachings and lessons. In skilled hands, glass painting can become a means of faith, contemplation, the experience of God, and self-knowledge. What enables this is the unique nature of glass itself, brought to life through the action of light.
László Hefter became intimately acquainted with the material – the nature of glass – studying the painting techniques of medieval glass masters and their systems of signs rooted in traditional iconology. This relatively easily decodable visual language, interpretable on different emotional and intellectual levels, reveals the varied layers of meaning inherent in glass. Just as, in his workshop, a cold, hard artwork is born from the hot, pliable material, so he urges light – describable through physical formulas – to manifest sacred signs.
Early Years
László Hefter loved drawing, and the visual arts were always close to him. During his secondary school years, he took on student work during summer holidays at the Neon Company, where, working alongside glassmakers, he first encountered the processing and malleability of glass. This experience became the starting point for his understanding of colours and light. In the two years following secondary school, he completed his training as a glassmaker. While acquiring practical knowledge of the trade, he became increasingly interested in the fine and applied artistic uses of glass. Through painting and sculpture courses at the Károly Ferenczy Circle of Fine Arts, he consciously prepared for admission to the Iparművészeti Főiskola (College of Applied Arts). After two years of military service and two years working in the glassmaking profession, he entered the College of Applied Arts, where in 1975 he obtained his degree as a glass designer artist in the silicate department.
Immediately after graduating, he first worked as a designer of neon advertising, and from 1976 onwards, through the Képző és Iparművészeti Lektorátus (Lectorate of Fine and Applied Arts), he undertook various fine and applied art commissions for public buildings and public spaces, creating sculptural works with a purified formal language in metal, glass, and stone. The design and realisation of architectural artistic glass surfaces gradually developed by 1980, depending on available opportunities, and have remained a defining component of his work ever since.
László Hefter left the Hungarian College of Applied Arts with a newly earned degree in glass design at a time when Hungarian glass art was undergoing a period of revival. During his studies, he produced several projects focusing on coloured, painted, leaded glass windows and actively participated in the creation of stained-glass windows by György Z. Gács and József Litkey, as well as several glass mosaics by István Eigel. “With my colours and lights, I want to enter interior spaces, to illuminate and influence what happens within,” the young artist formulated in an essay already during his college years – a line of thought he elaborated further in his degree project, which was also a stained-glass window. His commitment was reinforced when, one year after completing his studies, in 1975, a version of his degree project was realised in the dormitory of the Tanárképző Főiskola (Teacher Training College) in Pécs under the title X-Fény (X-Light), followed in 1980 by the design and execution of a cast-glass tile canopy above the main entrance of the Gellért Hotel in Budapest.
Győr, Studio Apartment, Inspiration
As a young artist at the beginning of his career, László Hefter moved to Győr after being awarded a studio apartment, where in 1976 he established his workshop. Here, he began his career with small-scale sculptural studio works connected to fine and applied arts, creating light mobiles that explored the spatial relationships of static and moving colours and lights, alongside larger public artworks made from various materials. He became involved in the artists’ colony movement that was beginning to re-emerge in Hungary at the time. In Győr, adapting to the tasks of the period and in connection with the local artists’ colonies, he worked with a wide range of materials. At the annually recurring summer symposia held at the Rába Works in Győr – alongside, among others, István Haraszty, Tibor Csiky, István Nádler, Antal Lux, Mária Lugossy, and Zoltán Bohus – he created a series of small sculptures and signboards in stainless steel, bronze, and copper, several enlarged versions of which were later installed in public spaces.
Owing to both opportunities and perhaps inner impulses, he returned to stained-glass windows, which raised questions more closely related to painting. At first, he produced small-scale autonomous works, and from the early 1980s onwards, architectural and restoration commissions gradually found him. He collaborated with architects and interior designers such as Miklós Hoffer, Gábor Winkler, György Kriszt, Jenő Hidasi, Maja Jahoda, István Horváth, Gyula Ebedli, Attila Bodrosy, Tamás Czigány, Csaba Rosta, Zorán Patartics, and Zsolt Gunther.
From 1979 onwards, László Hefter has received continuous commissions related to ecclesiastical buildings, public institutions, public spaces, and private patrons, both in Hungary and abroad. Among these, a particularly outstanding work in Győr is the forty-square-metre coloured stained-glass decoration of the curved sanctuary wall windows of the aula-chapel in the generously elegant, restrainedly modern building complex of the Apor Vilmos Katolikus Iskola (Apor Vilmos Catholic School), designed by Tamás Czigány. The composition, entitled Égi és Földi találkozás (Heavenly and Earthly Encounter), was completed in 1995. In this coloured, leaded antique-glass composition, abstract colour fields – distorted squares and triangular forms, shapes evoking floating draperies and soaring sails – are interspersed with concrete figurative motifs such as the sun, the moon, and a ship. At the same time, the sequence of windows, constructed from glass panels bordered by slightly broken straight lines that bend yet run with determination, is naturally subordinated to a larger organising principle. Colour quotations suggesting the alternation of the seasons are bound together by an irregular white band running across the five-part window fields, at times widening, at others narrowing capriciously. This band is segmented from below by more static earthly elements and from above by floating and descending celestial forms, by the surges of light and dark blue patches, and by the flare-ups of reds and ochres. The work is composed through counterpoints of dynamic virtual movements and moments of repose, of turbulence and clarification, filling the dome-covered chapel–aula space, imbued with a solemn atmosphere, with plays of light and darkness, certainty and ambiguity, colour and light. Also closely associated with Győr are the painted leaded-glass images of Saint Stephen and Prince Saint Emeric in the Cathedral; the stained-glass window series of the Komédiás Restaurant; the glass roof of Hotel Fonte; the Fénykereszt (Cross of Light) at the Győri Evangélikus Püspökség (Evangelical Bishopric of Győr); and the works entitled Kék csend (Blue Silence) and Oltárfények (Altar Lights) in the chapel of the Szent Anna Otthon (Saint Anne Home). All of these are outstanding contributions to the city’s artistic landscape. The work Justicia, installed in the Győri Ítélőtábla (Győr Court of Appeal) designed by Zorán Patartics and animating the ground-floor waiting hall, shows several affinities with the glass works created for the Saint Anne Home for the Elderly. The roots of this kinship lead back to László Hefter’s individual artistic outlook, whose essential feature – as we have seen – lies in the departure from figuration and in the conveyance of intellectual content and emotional intensities and subtleties through colour and formal structures that exert an elemental impact on the viewer.
In this work, László Hefter consciously sought to juxtapose compositional elements through forms that initially rise and build upwards, then descend in small gradations, combined with emphatically contrasting colours. Yet he achieved this through means that render the final result – in keeping with the spirit of the place – infinitely refined and, like the two arms of Justice’s scales, balanced.
The essence of László Hefter’s glass painting resides in the inventive use of colours, lines, and forms, and of abstraction as a means of expression; in his profound technical mastery; and in that restraint matured into an artistic attitude through which he shapes the external and internal rhythms of his compositions.
His most recent glass artworks have been realised in public spaces as three-dimensional sculptural works. Among these spatial compositions, the piece entitled Szódásüveg (Soda Bottle), located near the Jedlik Ányos ornamental fountain on the route leading to Dunakapu Square, has by now become one of Győr’s characteristic symbols. For this work, he studied numerous old, coloured soda bottles and proportionally aligned the composition with the most familiar soda bottle form. He found inspiration in recalling the era of Ányos Jedlik and in considering how a soda bottle associated with a master soda-maker was once produced with the care and quality characteristic of both the master and the honourable craft. Also significant are the three-metre-high glass and stone spatial sculpture Lélekkapu (Gate of the Soul) in the Nádorváros Public Cemetery in Győr, and the glass and granite composition Pannon történet (Pannon Story) installed on the main square of Pannonhalma.
All of his glass artworks, whether architectural glass surfaces or spatial sculptural works, are characterised by the transformation of constantly changing light – light vibration, light dynamics, refraction, and numerous other phenomena of light and colour – into visual quality. For László Hefter, glass art speaks simultaneously of intellectual attitude, analytical knowledge, material use, adaptation to environment and possibilities, and the articulation of emotional approaches.
It is therefore not surprising that Győr has remained loyal to its artist. In 1982, he received the Borsos Miklós Memorial Plaque of the City of Győr; in 1998, the Győr City Award for Culture; in 2000, the Győr City Award for Art; in 2013, the Szent László Award; and in 2018, he was honoured with the County Prima Prize. The latter was awarded by entrepreneurs who are outstanding representatives and driving forces of the local, county, and Győr economy, and who considered it important that the values of culture be present in their everyday lives as catalysts. For an environment shaped with artistic sensibility, a practically designed object, or a work of art alters the relationship between people and their surroundings, adds values, awakens thoughts, and prompts reflection and commitment.
The Precious Material: Glass
“Glass preserves within itself the beauty of chance and contingency. Its material is inspiring in every task, always new and unknown. The task of the glass artist is to find the mode of application that best corresponds to their thoughts.”
László Hefter
For László Hefter, the meaning of glass – intended ‘for eternity’ yet capable of capturing the fleeting magic of the moment – is bestowed by light. Light is a cultic force for the artist, capable of eliciting transcendental effects; perceptible light and the light of the spirit do not separate from one another. His glass paintings bring to life a concept in constant transformation through light, generating altered visions depending on time, weather, time of day, and the seasons, while evoking a sense of harmony. For László Hefter, emotional culture is of exceptional importance alongside the rational world. As an artist, he has worked for more than fifty years to maintain the balance between the two, believing that our emotions and inner impulses are sources of strength.
Stained-Glass Windows
László Hefter, a recipient of the Ferenczy Noémi Prize, has created numerous significant and monumental stained-glass windows, and his choice of this medium is far from accidental. He believed in the potential of this artistic field. Although at the beginning of his career glass art existed in a kind of vacuum – workshops had ceased to operate, his masters had passed away, and coloured glass as a material was expensive and difficult to obtain – it is to László Hefter’s credit that this decorative art form, closely connected to architecture, once again became an organic part of Hungarian art. “My new works are free initiatives. I want to discover new emotions within myself from my experiences, my impressions, from the particularities of glass, and from the essence of form, which can be expressed in infinitely varied ways. I intended my works to stand before people. What comes into being is often a surprise even to me.”
From the exterior, the coloured stained-glass window forms part of the architecture, closing the window opening, yet it functions as a decoration of the interior space. Receiving its light from the opposite side of the interior viewer, from behind, it reveals its artistic effect only under conditions of strong backlighting. It belongs to pictorial art and constitutes one of its variants. While wall paintings or pictures placed on walls decorate the wall itself through their colours and imagery and only indirectly create chromatic effects within the interior, the stained-glass window directly colours the very air and atmosphere of the building’s interior. The art of the stained-glass window is an applied art. Its subject matter, thematic content, and formal appearance always depend on the environment into which it is placed. Imitating the brilliance of gemstones, the coloured glass surface decomposes the rushing sunlight into its constituent colours, creating a constantly changing play of light that generates kinetic effects. This play of light appears on walls, objects, and people moving within the space, becoming an organic part of the architectural and interior design environment. The possibilities of glass, and the effects produced by coloured light, are extraordinarily rich in formal terms and are also suited to expressing faith within an architectural context and enriching our emotional culture.
Glass Art as a Sacred Genre
“In true works of art, the touch of God is present.”
László Hefter
From the second half of the nineteenth century onwards, coloured stained-glass windows were created in a significant proportion of Hungarian Catholic churches. Some of these served to regulate the incoming light, while others, through themes connected to the Christian Church, sought to depict or commemorate religious stories, figures, saints, and exemplary deeds as images painted on glass. Our churches and sacred spaces are spiritual places. New works of art entering these spaces must, whether through adherence to tradition or through progressive approaches, assume new interpretations of faith that respond to the present.
Having traversed Gothic cathedrals and studied the glass art of different artistic periods, László Hefter firmly maintains that for him the faith that turns the soul towards God is just as important, as a driving force of spiritual and physical effort, as the visual experience provided by light, coloured glass, and the special atmosphere created by their beauty. In glass art associated with sacred spaces, theological and liturgical considerations prevail, all the more so because the Church is most often the patron of such works. As László Hefter states: “In glass artworks, whether old or new, there have been, are, and will be works that make visible and comprehensible, for example, the truths, possibilities, uncertainties, and actual content of theology, and that may open paths towards new directions. Naturally, the reverse is also true: theology is capable of conveying, through writing and language – which occupy a privileged place in our religions – principles, conclusions, thoughts, and explanations that can be translated into a visual language system, which an artist can integrate into their own programme as experience, insight, or point of departure, finding the sign and mode of visual representation and thereby revealing yet another face of ever-changing art.”
During the design and creation of sacred glass artworks, he considers it his primary task that his works render the interior space more aesthetically receptive for a church community. A glass artwork can facilitate contemplation, either by enabling those participating in liturgical rites to deepen their shared faith, or by allowing the viewer’s gaze to come to rest and their consciousness to become active outside of services. It creates a spiritual atmosphere in which, through the focus of both image and viewer, the experience of God may also arise within the recipient. An example of this is the Saint Anne Home in Győr, a multi-storey, modern-lined building adapted to the surrounding cubic houses, where the patron created a small chapel on the ground floor intended to invite quiet devotion and to serve the spiritual care of elderly residents. Upon first entering this otherwise unremarkable, puritanical space, the viewer’s gaze is immediately drawn to the glowing red glass cross – suggestive and symbolising the suffering of Christ – set into the wall behind the altar opposite. Through the natural light filtering through it, the cross envelops the enclosed space in an atmosphere conducive to spiritual contemplation. The sense of constriction and enclosure resulting from the chapel’s dimensions, as well as the mystical, emphatically solemn radiance of the red cross – which may be regarded as the compositional focal point – was softened by László Hefter through a symmetrical series of coloured, leaded glass windows built into the walls surrounding the altar and opposite the entrance. Indeed, in terms of overall impression, the space was rendered more humane and closer to nature. The work was entitled Oltárfények (Altar Lights). The composition pays tribute to the memory of Ottokár Prohászka (1858–1927), who is widely known not only as an outstanding church figure but also as the founder of the Hungarian Christian social movement aimed at improving people’s living conditions. The only direct reference to Prohászka Ottokár within the work (Kék horizont [Blue Horizon]) appears in the form of a motto by the bishop, painted on a warm orange glass band and affirming the power of love. The elevation of spiritual attachment is reflected in the blues that dominate much of the work and in the ethereal yellow beams of light that seem to descend into them from the celestial sphere. By contrast, the struggles of earthly existence over years and decades are conveyed through layered irregular, amorphous forms, as well as through ordered red surfaces – which disrupt and loosen the verticality of the composition – and through small, scattered red minimalist gestural forms. The individual stages of life’s journey are indicated by broad red framing bands, which simultaneously serve to enclose the composition.
László Hefter’s glass composition entitled És megnyílik az ég (And the Sky Opens) is installed in the mortuary of Halbturn in Austria, in a single-storey building overlooking the cemetery. The ten-square-metre series of compositions is placed within eight elongated rectangular window fields, each divided into two parts, and is complemented by the Krisztus Király (Christ the King) composition above the mortuary altar. This work is related to the stained-glass window of the Apor School. Here too, the duality, encounter, and fusion of the earthly and the heavenly, the real and the transcendent, constitute the central theme. The colour composition is enriched by the reds of the earth and earthly existence, complemented by lush, vital greens, while the blue of heavenly being forms a dynamic ensemble animated by light effects. The gate of birth, ‘for a moment’, unites heavenly and earthly existence in its colours, just as the windows of the sky do, through which the ‘recoloured, fractured’ soul enters another dimension of existence.
László Hefter does not create pathetic works, nor ascetic ones addressed solely to the eye. “When I make a stained-glass window, the loss of reality is never the aim. The general proportions and material of the building, and the intensity of light and colours, must not be overridden. Windows must always stand as solid, planar surfaces – this is how they remain structural elements. Daylight arriving from outside, passing through a coloured glass surface, loses its objectivity and appears within the interior as vibrations, flashes, and radiances, forming harmonies, condensing, elongating, reflecting, and transforming the colour and essential nature of the objects within. Space, surface, body, and environment become coloured,” he asserts. “My works are ones that must be viewed as images, requiring one to stop and stand before them. Beyond architectural and sacred constraints, they are nevertheless free initiatives, in which I wish to assert the courage of invention, the right and duty of creative imagination, endowed with independence and dignity, and not functioning as subordinate objects.”
“The task of the artist is to create signs and systems of signs that people are able to decipher, from which they can form thoughts, that mirror reality – our present-day reality – and through which they find points of identification, discover the best qualities of their own soul, and strengthen their belonging to God.”
As an autonomous artist and restorer alike, László Hefter shapes his glass panels and fragments in such a way that light and colours, like sounds in music, envelop the soul. His stained-glass windows separate exterior and interior space, protecting against external influences while allowing light to enter – always differently, depending on weather and time of day. This is a manifestation of divine creative force, connected to nature and to our everyday lives: an extraordinarily varied physical phenomenon, harbouring mysteries awaiting interpretation in both scientific and artistic terms. As he puts it: “Stained-glass making is a ‘religion of colour’. Quite literally, we must confess our colours.”
Glass as a material, through its fragility, transparency, and special relationship with light, inherently carries a form of sacrality. When entrusted with a sacred commission, the artist must create a new mediating system of signs about faith, distinct from previous ones and arising from his own thoughts. As László Hefter affirms: “It is not enough that my craft is present in my prayers, that I am a believer, and that these permeate my everyday activity. In such moments, I must activate my innermost spiritual motivations and attitudes.”
In his gallery, he also exhibits and offers for sale numerous objects that are sacred works or contain motifs from the Christian system of symbols.
Restoration
Restoration signifies the preservation and safeguarding of national treasures. Fundamental to this process is the protection of original materials, individual signatures, and the intellectual and craft-based legacy created by the old Masters. Today, these legacies serve as lessons and as points of departure capable of further development. It is essential that restorative intervention should not be conspicuous, should not disturb the original formal and conceptual unity of the work, nor diminish the achievement of its creator.
“Many things can occur during restoration, as was the case with one of the windows of the church in Albertkázmérpuszta. It was only possible to determine in part what had originally been there. I had to trace the works of the German master across Europe from the 1890s. From the similarities and the surviving fragments, I had to reconstruct a coherent image, taking into account the biblical background and system of symbols of the depicted story, as well as its harmony with the other surviving stained-glass windows of the church.”
“I feel at ease during restoration work. I am driven by curiosity, because it is an experience to travel back in time, to gain insight into the often-forgotten secrets of a craft and a way of thinking. Behind the objects and windows to be restored there were sensitive human beings, for whom the value and meaning of life were embodied in the works they created.”
Through his restoration work – which in fact also set him on the path towards creating new stained-glass windows – László Hefter learned to think through every practical or theoretical, aesthetic or ethical step and gesture in its entirety. On occasion, he also produced small-scale replicas of historic stained-glass windows; several of these can be seen in the gallery, for example depictions of Saint George and Saint Francis. His more significant glass restoration projects often extended over several years, involving continuous work that raised and documented professional, ethical, heritage conservation, and art historical questions. He worked for seven years at the Pannonhalmi Apátság (Pannonhalma Archabbey), five years at the Magyar Nemzeti Bank (Hungarian National Bank), three years at the Szegedi Dóm (Votive Church of Szeged), and two years at the Budavári Mátyás-templom (Matthias Church in Buda Castle). In matters of restoration, the impossibility of absolute historical fidelity does not absolve the artist, when undertaking a task such as that of the Matthias Church, from beginning the work with thorough documentation. This includes an account of the history of the work’s creation, an assessment of its condition, the numbering of window elements, and the surveying of its formal and chromatic ranges, among other aspects. Seeing the stained-glass windows of the Matthias Church in the studio was shocking: independently of the explosion that had affected them, they had almost rotted away. This observation is not intended as blasphemy or cynicism, yet the barbaric act inevitably accelerated a process of value preservation that should have been carried out much earlier and with far greater professional care. “I do not know when the last restoration took place, but during the cleaning of the elements we could see nearly forty to fifty years’ worth of accumulated dirt and contamination.”
In contrast to the Sisyphean labour of restoration, the glass compositions suspended in the exhibition spaces and forming the central section of the display may appear as pleasing, light exercises of the hand. The material and technique of these works are identical to those of coloured stained-glass windows; indeed, they may also be included within a broadly interpreted metaphor of the window, since the artist’s intimate inner windows are projected outward, becoming visible and transparent, freely interpretable regardless of titles. One may already speak of their visual appeal and the sovereign character of the compositions, as this was fundamentally László Hefter’s intention.
The restoration of the windows depicting Szent László (Saint Ladislaus), Szent Margit (Saint Margaret), Szent Erzsébet (Saint Elizabeth), and Krisztus Király (Christ the King) in the Cathedral of Győr, as well as the creation of two new windows representing Szent István (Saint Stephen) and Szent Imre (Saint Emeric), likewise took several years. Through the restoration of nearly 600 square metres of stained glass by Miksa Róth, László Hefter contributed significantly to the wider recognition of Róth’s oeuvre. His name is also associated with the restoration of numerous leaded-glass windows designed on the basis of works by painters such as Bertalan Székely, Károly Lotz, Ferenc Stornó, and Gyula Benczúr.
Site and Meaning
The stained-glass window entitled Áttörés (Breakthrough) demonstrates why the site into which a work is placed is of fundamental importance. Áttörés, installed in the Basilica of the Pannonhalma Archabbey, occupies a special position in several respects not only within the oeuvre of László Hefter but also within international stained-glass art. It is a rare occasion when a contemporary stained-glass window is inserted into a sacred space animated by original nineteenth-century stained-glass works; it is even more unusual that the restorer of the original ensemble and the creator of the new work are one and the same artist–master. László Hefter restored the original stained-glass windows, produced between 1868 and 1870 to designs by Ferenc Stornó and executed with the collaboration of Carl Geyling, Albert Neuhauser, and József Wilfing, which were in an extremely poor state of preservation. This restoration was carried out with the utmost consideration for heritage-ethical principles, while retaining the original pictorial atmosphere in accordance with the designer’s intentions. Into this ensemble of windows – characterised by the detailed treatment typical of nineteenth-century sacred representations, following a particular naturalistic approach, and fulfilling a decorative function while incorporating ecclesiastical teachings and biblical symbols – a stained-glass work that is ‘contemporary’ in every respect was introduced. The colour composition of the Áttörés window – with its rich tonal variations of blues and reds – evokes the chromatic world of twelfth- and thirteenth-century stained-glass windows, while at the same time fitting perfectly, in terms of colour composition, alongside its nineteenth-century counterparts. Through upward-striving formal elements simplified into geometric shapes, through the penetration of different planes, and through the colour gradations applied to these forms, the work explores the possibility of ascent from the earthly to the heavenly sphere. Employing the special capacities of glass as a material – its transcendent materiality and its dynamics of light and colour – this ascent is expressed through a kind of lyrical suspension between spheres. An intriguing aspect of the work’s afterlife is that, during the renovation of the Basilica, the window was removed from the church, and it is hoped that in time it will find a new location, where its field of meaning will undoubtedly be transformed.
Artistic Education
László Hefter states: “We should always be generous in passing on our knowledge, bearing in mind that there will be those who come after us.” This way of thinking may well have led him to establish, in 1993, the glassmaking programme at the Kovács Margit Iparművészeti Szakgimnázium (Kovács Margit Secondary Vocational Grammar School of Applied Arts in Győr, which remains in operation to this day and is unique of its kind in Hungary. He taught the craft there for twelve years – and today, his former students are among the teachers of the programme. In addition, in 1978, at his initiative, the Borsos Miklós szabadiskola (Borsos Miklós independent art school) [a workshop-based art school where students learn directly from practicing artists] was founded in Győr, which he directed for forty years. It was there that he first encountered students who learned the glassmaking profession by working in his workshop. Of the students who emerged from his workshop, the fine arts study circle, and the Kovács Margit school, ‘twelve’ chose the path of becoming glass artists. He is a regular member of examination committees at secondary schools and universities specialising in the arts, delivers lectures and courses, and maintains an open workshop where, every year, students interested in glass art may complete their professional practice. As a restorer and heritage conservation expert, he is a continuous participant in the evaluation of architectural glass art projects.
Pannonhalma, the Gallery, Hefter Brúnó
László Hefter was invited to restore the coloured stained-glass windows of the Pannonhalma Archabbey, where he worked for eight years. In 1997, he purchased a plot of land there, then still agricultural land. The proximity of the Archabbey, the arboretum, and the cultural and spiritual radiance that has made the site part of the World Heritage had a profound influence on the artist and his family. Alongside his creative and pedagogical activities, in 2007 he founded a contemporary art gallery in Pannonhalma through personal initiative and private means. This gallery is the only permanent forum dedicated to Hungarian glass art, with a continuously expanding collection. The gallery functions as a significant cultural centre, hosting professional events and artistic gatherings. Within the framework of permanent and temporary exhibitions at the Hefter Galéria (Hefter Gallery), leading figures and works of contemporary glass art are continuously presented, including László Hefter’s own creative and restoration oeuvre. It is the only glass art gallery in Hungary. Today, the gallery is directed by his son, Brúnó Hefter, himself a glass artist and also trained as an economist. In recent years, they have worked jointly on several projects, including the Szódásüveg (Soda Bottle) fountain on the main square of Pannonhalma, as well as the spatial sculptures Pannon történet (Pannon Story) and Lélek kapu (Gate of the Soul) in the Nádorváros Public Cemetery in Győr. The studio in Győr also functions as a place of practice and education, where numerous Hungarian and international students have acquired the foundations of the profession. Together with his son, Brúnó Hefter, László Hefter’s aim is to serve high-quality culture through his own profession and through applied arts more broadly.
The uniqueness of the glass art gallery lies in the fact that it operates as an artistic enterprise engaged in constant development, embedded within national and international cultural and economic networks. Taking into account both community and individual interests, and collaborating closely with artists, it often assumes museum-like roles, welcoming more than 4,000 visitors annually.