2010Christmas - Set

Erzsébet Udvardi, who lives and works in Badacsonytomaj, was born in 1929 in Baja. Her work has earned her many distinctions, including the titles Artist of Excellence and Artist of Merit, and in 1999 the Kossuth Prize. The art historian Mimi Kratochwill described her as follows: “The importance and individuality of her oeuvre can be appraised in her work to date. Her art and range of interests are filled by works of ecclesiastical art and biblical panel paintings, paintings of memories of her childhood and parents, compositions inspired by mythology, oil paintings illustrative of great literary works and paintings inspired by the Balaton Uplands. Her compositions in oil paintings, murals, panel paintings, watercolours, charcoal and pencil drawings are always done fitting the subject in question and exploiting the opportunities dictated by the place... The Bible is a constant source of inspiration in the oeuvre of Erzsébet Udvardi... She visually depicts the words of the Holy Scripture and transforms them into contemporary pictures with a highly individual view.” In the designs of the set of two stamps details of the painting have been graphically reworked. These show the main subject of the work, the Virgin and Child, and, symbolising the joy of the birth of Jesus, angels making music from the top right of the painting. The designs based on the original work were made using a special printing technique that allows the application of gold and silver foil. The first day cover for the set features a reproduction of the whole painting. The graphics of the festive postmark are stylised drawings of the main and other motifs of the painting. Once again this year, customers will be able to send their greetings to loved ones far away cancelled with the postmark of the village of Nagykarácsony, whose name means in Hungarian. As usual, different postmarks will be available during the weeks of Advent. A new event for children this year will be that, for the first time, there will also be festive postmarking at the Play Post Office (Meseposta) on Sundays during Advent.