ILKA AND EVA - Women's dilemmas in the early 20th century
Guided tour by art historian CSILLA E. CSORBA at the exhibition "The Missing Gaze - Ilka Révai's Forgotten Life's Work
At the beginning of the 20th century, young girls from the bourgeoisie, especially before marriage, were keen to pursue their hobbies in music, fine arts and handicrafts.
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The emancipation movement intensified the desire for women to become breadwinners and to work professionally in the arts and crafts. The lack and difficulty of formal education encouraged many of them to take various vocational courses. Of the many careers that combined artistic ambition with a livelihood, the various branches of applied art, photography, textile design, toy making, dressmaking and jewellery making proved to be areas into which women could enter. In 1909, Ilka Révai studied photography after her husband's death, initially out of necessity and then increasingly out of vocation, and became one of the best in her field in terms of artistic quality. With the support of her mother, her daughter Éva Révai (1905-2006), after a short period of study, became a much sought-after and celebrated figure in the Paris fashion world in the 1920s, her creative accessories, necklaces, headdresses, bracelets and buttons made of innovative materials quickly appearing on haute couture models.
The fragmentary careers of both of them are a model of the evolution of women's art in the early 20th century and of the conscious shaping of women's careers.
Ticket: 1500,-Ft