Lilla Szabó: Ceramic Artist Anna Horváth

Sculptor, ceramic artist, medallist, graphic artist, and publicist. She was one of the defining figures of contemporary Hungarian fine arts in Kárpátalja (Transcarpathia). In 2005 she was ceremonially elected a member of the Hungarian Academy of Arts, together with painters Lajos Tóth, Ferenc Erfán, and László Magyar, writers László Vári Fábián, Magda Füzesi, and Zoltán Mihály Nagy, and director Attila Vidnyánszky. She was recommended by painter Pál Gerzson and sculptor Pál Kő and admitted by President Imre Makovecz.

Her father worked for the railway, so due to frequent relocations she attended school in Igló (Spišská Nová Ves, Slovakia), Kassa (Košice, Slovakia), and later Beregszász (Berehove, Ukraine). She completed her secondary studies in Beregszász, Kassa, and Lőcse (Levoča, Slovakia). Her career and activities were shaped by Hungarian Transcarpathia [North-East region of Hungary 1000-1920 and 1938-1945], which belonged to Czechoslovakia [1920-1938] and then to the Soviet Union [1945-1991; since then, it is the westernmost part of Ukraine]. After finishing secondary school, she had the opportunity to try herself in several fields. From 1946 she worked in the tile workshop of the Beregszász brick factory, where she grew fond of the raw material used for her small sculptures and medals. She was a self-taught artist who considered Béla Erdélyi, Ferenc Manajló, and József Boksay her masters. Her genre sculptures, depicting scenes from folk life and built upon the traditions of Transcarpathian and Hungarian folk art, brought her wide recognition. Her small clay sculptures are characterized by humour and a charming quality reminiscent of the works of ceramic artist Margit Kovács (1902–1977). She is regarded as a significant medallist who represented Ukrainian artists with success at major international exhibitions. Her continuous artistic renewal and creativity are demonstrated by her interest in several artistic fields: set design, small sculpture, monumental sculpture, copper embossing, interior design, graphics, painting, and, not least, medal art. She constantly experimented with new formal and technical solutions and drew inspiration from contemporary artistic movements and techniques as well. She lived and worked in Beregszász.

She first exhibited in a group show in Beregszász in 1958, after which she became a regular participant in district and national exhibitions. From 1959 onward she took part in Hungarian fine arts exhibitions. From 1963 she was a member of the Artists’ Union of the Soviet Union and of the Artists’ Union of Ukraine. (She was not a member of the Révész Imre Society of Hungarian Fine and Applied Artists of Transcarpathia.) Between 1994 and 1996 she worked at numerous artists’ colonies, including those in Tállya, Sóstó, Esztergom, and Szécsény, and she also travelled to Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Germany. Her works were shown several times at international FIDEM (International Art Medal Federation) exhibitions. Her art was exhibited in Warsaw, Budapest, Berlin, Bucharest, Kassa (Košice), and Nyíregyháza. In Transcarpathia, many of her works are publicly displayed, including the Shevchenko memorial plaque in Beregszász and the fourteen-panel series of reliefs, the Keresztút (Stations of the Cross) in the Roman Catholic Church of Nagyszőlős (Vinohragyiv, Ukraine). Alongside sculpture, she considered the support of Transcarpathian literature important. Together with teacher and textbook author Gizella Drávai, she took part in establishing the literary studio associated with the district newspaper Vörös Zászló in Beregszász. She was a founding member of the József Attila Creative Community (1988) and the Bereg Creative Association. She also published her own writing: her short prose appeared in Kárpáti Igaz Szó – where she also worked as a journalist – and in Kalendárium. Her volume Megtört csend (lit. Broken Silence) was published in 1965, in which she presented all the essential aspects of the cultural life of Beregszász. She also contributed to the anthology Sugaras utakon (lit. On Radial Routes) (1985). In 1994 her notes, confessions, and drawings were published by Intermix Kiadó under the title Az a régi nyár (lit. That Past Summer).

She was one of the most outstanding, independent, and charismatic personalities of Transcarpathia. She served as a role model and mentor for generations of Transcarpathian Hungarian artists, writers, and poets. Her studio became a centre of spiritual and artistic life for young Hungarian creators. During her school years she conducted ethnographic research collecting folk material. László Balla, in his study Erdélyi Béla és kortársai (lit. Béla Erdélyi and His Contemporaries) (1994), considered her the “most universal” artist of the third generation of painters. She was a friend of Kálmán Benda, president of the Hungarian Folk High School Association; historian Professor Ágnes Várkonyi; and many Transcarpathian writers and artists, among them Vilmos Kovács and László Balla. Several portrait films were made about her by television studios in Kyiv, Moscow, Ungvár (Uzshorod), Pécs, Budapest, and by the Intervision network in Berlin. On her 80th birthday in 2004, the television channel in Ungvár produced a documentary in which she spoke in detail about her life, the circumstances of the local population, their trials, and their achievements. Her credo was often cited at the memorial exhibition held in 2012: “One can approach material, paper, pencil, or a human being only with a pure heart and a pure soul.” (Molnár Bertalan, Horváth Anna emlékkiállítás [Anna Horváth Memorial Exhibition], in Kárpátaljai Hírmondó, Budapest, VIII/2, 9 June 2012.) Horváth Anna died in 2005 and bequeathed her estate to the city of Beregszász. A memorial plaque in her honour was placed on the wall of the Beregszász City Cultural Centre.

She received numerous distinctions during her career: in 1973 she won second prize at the National Medal Art Exhibition (Moscow); in 1976 she received an honorary diploma from the leadership of the Soviet Artists’ Union (Moscow). In Transcarpathia she was honoured several times: in 1995 with the Award of Excellence of the Association of Hungarian Intellectuals of Transcarpathia (Ungvár), and in 1996 she was awarded the Pro Urbe Prize (Beregszász). In 1996 she received the title “Meritorious Artist of Ukraine.” In 1991 the Hungarian Ministry of Culture and Education recognized her achievements with the Pro Cultura Hungarica Award.

[2017]