KAESZ Gyula
KAESZ, Gyula
architect, interior designer, applied artist
(Budapest, 13th July, 1897– Budapest, 12th May 1967)
1917: School of Applied Arts, he took a degree in applied building arts, master: Dénes Györgyi. 1947 Golden Award of the Merit of Honor of the Hungarian Peoples’ Republic; 1948: Presidential Certificate of Merit of the Hungarian Peoples’ Republic; 1948: Bronze Prize of the Work Merit; 1950: Munkácsy Award; 1956: Kossuth Award; 1965: Meritorious Artist Award. Kaesz, besides his furniture design and interior designing activities continuously dealt with the production of applied graphical designs. His pedagogical work continuously constituted a significant segment of his professional career. From the year of 1919 he was a lecturer of the School of Applied Arts, and partook in the reorganization of the school into the College of Applied Arts after 1945. He was the Inspector of the College of Applied Arts between the period ranging from 1952 to 1958. Besides his pedagogical activities he continuously published theoretical works (In the periodicals Tér és Forma /Space and Form/ and Perspektíva /Perspective/, amongst others). Between 1935 and 1938 he founded his own independent periodical entitled A bútor /Furniture/. Following the Second World War he pertook in the editing of the periodical entitled Új Építészet /New Architecture/. In the year of 1962 a book by him entitled Ismerjük meg a bútorokat /Let us become acquainted with Furniture/ was published. He was the member among others of the Országos Magyar Iparművészeti Társulat /Hungarian National Applied Arts Society/, the Magyar Mérnök- és Építészegylet /The Society of Hungarian Engineers and Architects/, the Országos Ipartestület /National Industrial Society/, the Magyar Könyv- és Reklámművészek Szövetsége /Society of Book and Advertisement Artists/, the Magyar Műhely Szövetség /Hungarian Workshop Society/, and the Magyar Művészeti Tanácsnak /Hungarian Artistic Society/ following 1945. He also participated in the activities of the Könyvművészeti Állami Bizottság /Book Arts Governmental Committee/. Besides his furniture designs he was commissioned with a number of significant interior design tasks: the designing of a number of Hungarian and International Exhibition Pavilions (e.g.: 1933 and 1936: Triennial of Milan [with Bierbauer Virgil]; 1937: the Hungarian Section of the World Exhibition held in Paris [with Dénes Györgyi]; 1937: 5th National Handicraft Exhibition; 1948: Típusbúto Kiállítás /Type Furniture Exhibition/, etc.). Amongst his architectural commissions were villas, exhibition pavilions, as well as the quite significant bank reconstruction tasks around 1940 (e.g.: Nemzeti Takarékpénztár és Bank /National Savings Bank/, Kassai Kereskedelmi Bank /Commercial Bank of Kassa/, Szarvasi Takarékpénztár /Savings Bank of Sarvas/, etc.). His architectural legacy is kept by the Architectural Museum of the OMVH, furthermore a number of the furniture designed by him may be found at the permanent exhibition of the Museum of Applied Arts in Budapest.
(translated by: Vladimir Végh)
