The show pays homage to members of three generations of the Gorka family: Géza Gorka, Lívia Gorka and Géza Focht Gorka.
The show was originally slated to open on August 20, Hungary?s national holiday, but the organisers decided it should be dedicated to the memory of Lívia Gorka after her death on August 4, at the age of 86, said institute director Ildikó Márkus.
A show of Lívia Gorka?s work in the Finnish city of Gmunden in 1959 marked the start to her career as an internationally known ceramics artist. It was at the show that she met Kyllikki Salmenhaara, a designer for Helsinki?s Arabia ceramics factory who proved an inspiration for her entire career.
Lívia Gorka always wanted her work to be shown in Helsinki, but the first instance has only come now, said Márkus.
Lívia Gorka learnt her craft in the workshop of her father, Géza Gorka (1897-1971), who started his career as a folk potter but became the best known representative of Hungarian ceramic arts. His art deco figures, decorative plates and other objects, were popular in all of Europe as well as in America. He won a gold medal at the 1939 World Expo in New York for his work.
Géza Gorka?s grandson has continued the family tradition and become a maker of ?extraordinarily ambitious, beautifully formed and useful objects, plates, dishes and even jewellery,? said Lilla Szabó, an art historian at the Hungarian National Gallery.
Source: Hungarian News Agency (MTI)
