Imre Pán (born Mezei) was one of the most versatile organizers of Hungarian art during the 20th century. He took part in the Hungarian avant-garde movement at an early age. In 1924, he and his brother Árpád Mezei founded their first avant-garde magazine IS (Also), and in 1931 the periodical Index. He came into contact with Lajos Kassák as well, his poems were published in the Vienna issues of Ma, and he was an illegal distributor of the magazine in Budapest. Kassák also published his writings regularly in later journals, including Dokumentum and Munka. During the short democratic period after the Second World War, he was a founding member of Európai iskola (European School) on 13 October 1945, together with Lajos Kassák, Árpád Mezei, Pál Gegesi Kiss, Ernő Kállai and the artists who joined them. Their pamphlets and catalogues were published by Pán and Mezei. After the Communist takeover in 1948, Pán's home became an important informal meeting place for the Hungarian avant-garde intelligentsia. In 1957, Pán exiled to Paris with the painter Endre Bálint. Pán remained in France until his death in 1972. In a short time, he became an active participant of the Paris art world, writing exhibitions reviews and studies, and publishing several art publications. Pán also played an important role in the international presentation of Hungarian artists, Lajos Kassák among others.
The Kassák Museum acquired parts of he archives of Imre Pán from his son, Gábor Mezei, and art collector Ferenc Kiss in 2012, 2020 and 2021, with the financial support of the National Cultural Fund and the Petőfi Literary Museum. The collection consists of around 2 200 items, including the correspondence of Imre Pán with his colleagues and his family between 1920 and 1970, manuscripts, photo albums and avant-garde publications.
This archive is currently being processed, researched and inventoried. It will be available for researchers in the near future.