intangible cultural heritage

Traditional wood-carving

area : Vasi Hegyhát
category : traditional craftmanship
Since the end of the 1980's two wood-carvers, Imre Tőke from Nagytilaj, and Lajos Magyar from Pácsony got into the focus of historians. They showed their naive works on many exhibitions in the country and got many awards from the audience and from professionals too. The traditions of wood-carving have deep roots in the Hegyhát. However, the two artists passed away long time ago, the tradition of wood-carving remained strong, and expanded in wood-carving camps.
There were several camps organized by the Foundation for Villages' Culture in the Hegyhát. In the villages they made statues for the local public places, and in Vasvár they made the aforementioned statues in the valleys of the Szentkút. (Holy well)
Traditional wood-carving was a dominant part of Hegyhát's culture in the 80's and 90's. There were two, nationally well-known naive wood-carver artists in the area, Imre Tőke from Nagytilaj, and Magyar Lajos from Pácsony.

Imre tőke lived in Nagytilaj since his death in 1996. History of art mentions him as a genius, his original occupation was shepherd. He remained in this era in his whole life. In 1977 he got the III. National Folk Art exhibition's ‘Niveau award’, and in 1979 he earned the “Master of Folk Art” title. He started carving as a teenager. At the beginning, he made cigarette holders, pipes, crosiers and whip handles, later single, or multiple person statues in lyrical, intimate atmosphere showing villagers in family or work situations. In the 80's he became a member of a national carving studio, which brought changes in his style too: The former small statues were changed to monumental, meters-high columnar statues. He had many independent exhibitions all along the country. As a public collection, a few of his works are shown in the Museum of Naive Artist at Kecskemét.

Lajos Magyar was born in 1913 and lived in the Hegyhát, Pácsony. He tried wood-cariving after his retirement. He made cooking spoons, later, thanks to a friend of his' promting the started to make staves. Later he made statues. Parallel to wood-carving he also played music and repaired watches, however, he studied non of these activities. Her wife did not support his wood-carving activity; however, she called his attention to a creative application in Szombathely. The directors of the exhibition chose some statues of his to the show too. Later they took his works to many exhibitions. At Nyíregyháza, in 1981 he won gold medal at the V. National Folk Arts Exhibition, then he was awarded at the Folk Arts Museum and the Museum of Naive Artists bought several statues from him.
His statue, “Család” (Family) gave brought him the fame. The work is separated into three parts: In the middle, there is the artist and his wife, next to their there sits the daughters and sons of them. Next to, or in front of every people on the work is a symolic item, which is in connection with their jobs. (type-writer, sewing machine, radiator etc)

Wood-carving Camps
There were several camps organized by the Foundation for Villages' Culture in the Hegyhát. The artist stayed two times at Gersekarát, one time at Telekes, then Petőmihályfa and last time, at Vasvár. In the villages they made statues for the local public places, and in Vasvár they made the aforementioned statues in the valleys of the Szentkút. (Holy well)

The wood-carving camp which was organized in Nagymákfa was a part of the “Golghelogi” program. The conception was to make useful things from local wood. This is how they got their new street furniture, bench, wooden-cross, belfry, street signs and guiding plates by artist from all across the country.
« back
farag_k
Hh_tsztp_ter_22_
Hh_tsztp_ter_20_
 
Free Joomla Theme by Hostgator