The Hungarian National Museum Public Collection Centre Petőfi Literary Museum – Kassák Museum cordially invites you to the opening of the exhibition A Scythian Avant-Garde. Emil Szittya (1886–1964) 

Opening speech by Balázs Mohácsi, poet and literary historian 

Oddball, gingerbread pug, curly-haired desert camel, the satyr or the holy seraph, the knight enshrouded in fog, the pariah dog – the writer, editor, painter, and art critic Emil Szittya (1886–1964) was called many names by his fellow artists and literary historians. “I am said to have been acquainted with the most famous criminals, vagrants, anarchists, socialists, politicians, and artists, and to have practised all these professions myself. Besides, I am said to have been a spy and a political impostor. (…) What I know for sure is that I am the most international person in the world,” he responded.

With the exhibition A Scythian Avant-Garde, the Kassák Museum unravels this dense fabric of literary topoi, hearsay, and self- and other-fabricated legends in order to present the politically engaged artist and writer, as well as the historical figure shaped by the upheavals of the twentieth century. To do so, the exhibition reunites two major legacies of Szittya’s life and work: his painted oeuvre, preserved in a French private collection (Fonds Szittya), and his papers — exceptional in their volume, heterogeneity, and temporal scope — held at the Deutsches Literaturarchiv (German Literary Archives). These materials, from his books and paintings to expulsion orders and court rulings, allow us to trace Szittya across geographical, cultural, linguistic, and medial boundaries. 

Curated by Magdolna Gucsa.

The exhibition is open until 20 September 2026.