Faces of modernism after Trianon : Károly Kós, Lajos Kozma and Neo-Baroque design in interwar Hungary
Paul Stirton
Abstract
In comparing the careers of Károly Kós and Lajos Kozma between c. 1907 and 1930, this article explores the impact of the First World War and its aftermath on the work of two leading Hungarian architect-designers.These circumstances not only affected their working practices and professional opportunities, but also reflected changes in taste, theory and the source materials of Hungarian domestic design.While Kós clung ever more desperately to the values that shaped his pre-war practice, Kozma embarked on a new direction embracing the Neo-Baroque, a style that emerged with distinctive regional characteristics in many of the successor states of Central Europe in the 1920s.The article discusses some of the sources and meanings of this style.