Lily (Lili) Márkus
Born 1900
Died February 1962
Active: 1930 - 1960
Country of birth: Croatia
Country of death: England
Modeller, potter, carver, textile designer
Born in Gyurgyenovác near Eszék (now Croatia) to a family of German Jewish origin (Engels/Elek). In January 1923 she married Győző Márkus and moved to Budapest. She completed her ceramics training in 1932, and immediately won recognition for her outstanding designs. Márkus's functional wares, decorative vessels, figurines, elaborately carved panels and exhibition pieces were shown in Paris, Milan, New York, Warsaw and Berlin where they won many awards.
In 1939 Lili and her husband were forced to leave Hungary and settled in Glossop, Derbyshire. She had an exhibition of pottery and handwoven tapestries at the Batsford Gallery, 15 North Audley Street, London from 26 June to 13 July 1946 and later other shows at Heal's and Kendal Milne in Manchester. Márkus worked for a number of British pottery companies in the 1950s including Poole pottery. However she was unable to recreate the brilliance and commercial success of her early career in Budapest. A 'Tree Relief' c. 1939 was purchased by Victoria and Albert Museum from her show at the Batsford Gallery.
Márkus's work has been the subject of a number of exhibitions, including 'In the Eye of the Storm: Three Stories of Hungarian Craft, Design and Architecture 1930 - 1960', Collins Gallery, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow (4 October-22 November 2008) with an associated publication by Juliet Kinchin, and a show at the Museum of Applied Arts, Budapest (March-April 2012) - http://www.imm.hu/hu/exhibits/view/129,Egy (accessed 28 February 2012). Information from the 2008 exhibition is now online at http://www.lily-markus.co.uk (accessed 1 July 2015). There are also some images and details of her work at http://john-tyrrell.blogspot.com/2012/02/lili-markus-from-eszek-to-glossop-via_13.html (accessed 1 July 2015). This record includes information submitted by her grandson, Dan Markus.
Works
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Exhibitions, Meetings, Awards and other Events
Exhibited at Exhibition 20 by the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society, 1946
'Lover's Tryst'
Exhibited at Society of Staffordshire Artists. Autumn Exhibition (City of Stoke on Trent Museums and Art Gallery, Hanley), 1945
November 1945
Designed and decorated 11 pieces of pottery, p. 12 (143-153).
Sources
Society of Staffordshire Artists. Autumn Exhibition, 1945
November 1945
p. 12.
The Times Digital Archive 1785-1985
2008
The Times (London, England), Saturday, Jul 06, 1946; pg. 6; Issue 50496. (3478 words)
Citing this record
'Lily (Lili) Márkus', Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011 [http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/person.php?id=msib4_1220545019, accessed 02 Jul 2022]
