Biographical data

Erzsébet Kovács was born in the small village of Ősi in Hungary. While still at school she learnt to paint porcelain at the Herend Porcelain Factory, after which she moved to Budapest and worked in the enamelling workshop of the State Mint, where she first became acquainted with the fired enamel technique. From 1979 to 1985 she studied at the College of Applied Art in Budapest, where she met her husband, Győző Zoltán. They were married in 1983 and have three children.

Among the many works created jointly with her husband are the tabernacle door and the enamelled panels representing the Prodigal Son and the Good Shepherd in the Red Church in Balatonfüred.

One of their major commissions was the series of “Hungarian Saints” and the “Virgin Mary, Patron of Hungary” made for Pope John Paul II and presentedto him as the gift of the Hungarian nation on his first visit to the country in 1991. In 1996 they prepared the repository for the relic of Blessed gizella, wife of the first king of Hungary, and in 2000 the Stations of the Cross for the Round Church in Balatonfüred.