In front of the beatiful baroque Ark statues of Gutenberg square, at the corner of Apáca street we find the Kereszta-house (rebuilt in the style of classicism). The house was named after the owner of the shop that used to be run here.

The house of medieval atmosphere had two floors in 1703, and later a manzard roof was attached to it. A permanent exhibition of the works of Margit Kovács was arranged here in 1974. This was further extended in 1982. A number of the works were gifted to the town by the artist, and other items belong to the Kovács Margit Collection of Szentendre.

Ceramicist Margit Kovács (1902-1977) was born in Győr. She began her studies in the private school of Álmos Jaschik Álmos, then she went to Hertha Bucher's private school in Vienna (1926-1928) and later to the Staatschule für angewandte Kunst in Münnich (Karl Killernél és Adalbert Niemeyer) (1928- 1929).

On returning home she joined into the Hungarian art world. She and her family moved to Budapest, and she was working there up to the end of her life. Her first large exhibition was held in the National Saloon. Critics called her the most talented young Hungarian ceramicist. The same year she won a prize on the modern applied arts exhibition of Monza, which was followed by a number of acknowledgements. She travelled to Denmark in 1932, then she continued her studies in Paris. Meanwhile she worked for the Porcelain factory in Sevres for a few months.

She exhibited the results of her work up to 1935 in the Tamás Gallery.

Among her early works there are homogeneous coloured ceramics with gloomy colours, religios works, reliefs and plastics made into closed forms. (Jacob's dream, 1929; Sitting girl, 1933; Small girl, 1933 k.). Formái zártak, színei borongósak.

Her art drifted into a more melted and decorative direction after 1936. One of her most famous ecclesiastical work is the portal of the St Imre church of Győr (1939-1940). She made the large ceramic picture of the Hungarian pavilion in the World Exhibition, Paris, and the occasional decoration entitled 'Budapest, the queen of the Danube'.

Besides these large-scaled works she steadfastly cared for her unique form of expression, which had a little of everything from the medieval art to the popular arts.

Her life work is characterized by the joy of beauty, a respect of the mother tongue and virtuosity in technique. In the centre of her art there stands the man. She formed with unfailing fantasy the humorous, grotesgue or dramatic acts, landscapes, reliefs, figures borrowed from falk tales, and fully ornamented jugs.

The permanent exhibition involves a great variety of items such as flower vazas, animal figured jugs, gothic angels, mother and child, religious and engobe wall pictures, round plastics, etc.

She made her figures with good psychological sense. She especially cared for the realistic formation of the hands, which is opposite to the distorted body and tipified head formation. The secret of the unresistable influence of her works can be found in their sincerity.

Júlia N. Mészáros