Introduction
The
Kassák Museum’s permanent exhibition presents the literary, artistic
and journalistic oeuvre of Lajos Kassak (1887-1967), the leading figure
of the Hungarian avant garde. Independent in thought and action, he
first appeared in the 1910s as an artist of a type that was utterly new
in Hungary, and his responses to historical and social challenges
through the successive stages of his life were unceasingly original.
Born into a half-Magyar, half-Slovak family, with no scholarly
background, he developed his own way of thinking, innovative and
wide-ranging, and from his own strengths alone grew into an
international
authority. He never ossified into the pose of artistic giant, and his
strong individuality kept him open and dynamic, able to collaborate, and
think collectively. Communities grew up around him – the people who
worked with him in editing journals, a cultural society, and a walking
group where young working-class people shared experiences and visions of
the future. Kassák was a pioneer of the modern attitude that artistic
activity is not constrained by the boundaries of aesthetics: he created
art which linked social criticism with bold ideas for the future.
Kassák’s periodicals in the 1910s and 1920s
A
Tett, 1915 – 1916 Kassák started up his first journal, A Tett (“The
Action”), during the First World War. A Tett had a tone and a European
perspective which the public of the time found provocative. Its models
and precursors were German journals with social and political
inclinations, and Dadaist-influenced publications. Although the journal
became the target of numerous political attacks for its anti-war
rhetoric and anarchist views, its propagation of radical ideas on the
purpose of art succeeded in encouraging the embryonic artistic avant
garde and the activist movement. It was in A Tett that Guillaume
Apollinaire and Marinetti were first published in Hungary. A Tett
survived for a total of 17 issues between 1 November 1915 and October
1916. Kassák devoted the last, international issue to works and writing
by artists from countries at war with the Monarchy. The prosecutor’s
office responded by finally closing it down. A Tett’s other editors
included Dezső Szabó, Aladár Komjáth, Mátyás György, József Lengyel,
Andor Halasi, János Mácza, Vilmos Rozványi, Imre Vajda and Béla Uitz.
MA, Budapest 1916 – 1919
After
A Tett was banned, Kassák launched a new journal, MA (“Today”). MA came
out in Budapest 35 times from 15 November 1916 to 1 July 1919, edited
by Kassák, Béla Uitz, Sándor Bortnyik, Jolán Simon, Sándor Barta and
Erzsi Ujvári. The journal’s subtitle changed several times – originally
Journal of Literature and the Arts, then Activist Journal, and finally
Activist Journal of Arts and Social Affairs – indicating its intended
role in the historical developments of the late 1910s. During the
Republic of Councils, Kassák stood up for the autonomy of art and became
embroiled in an ideological dispute with Béla Kun. The journal was
banned. The fall of the Republic of Councils brought even worse times
for Kassák: after a period of imprisonment he – together with many other
intellectuals – left the country in 1920 and took up a life of exile in
Vienna. During these years in Budapest, Kassák and the MA Circle
engaged in organisational activities which went far beyond editing a
journal. Through their books, exhibitions and cultural events, they
assumed the task of propagating ideas that spanned art, literature and
music.
MA, Vienna 1920 – 1926
In
1920, MA was relaunched in the very different cultural milieu of
Vienna. Exile caused the journal to take on a new perspective. Kassák
quickly entered the international network of avant garde journals, and
within a few years became a respected figure of European modernism. He
became acquainted with Kurt Schwitters, Tristan Tzara, El Lissitzky and
Hans Arp. Several of the friendships he forged with artists at that time
persisted to the end of his life. It was in this milieu that Kassák
became an artist and a committed disciple of Constructivism. In 1924, he
exhibited in the Sturm Gallery in Berlin. His theoretical work also
developed during his years in Vienna. He wrote the theory of Image
Architecture, and was an active participant in the international
discourse of contemporary art.
MA ultimately survived for 10 years, making it the longest-lasting journal with such a modern outlook in the period.
(You can find the issues of MA in Vienna in the digital archive of the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek.)
In
the second half of the nineteen twenties, together with European
modernism in general, Kassák and MA found themselves increasingly in a
vacuum. Kassák returned home in autumn 1926, and in December of that
year launched a new journal, Dokumentum. His main colleagues in this
project were Tibor Déry, Gyula Illyés, József Nádass and Andor Németh.
As with MA, Kassák placed Dokumentum in the international perspective,
as evidenced by its appearing in three languages: Hungarian, German and
French. Kassák wanted to make up for the deficit of information on
contemporary European art by publishing foreign writers. He extended his
interest to modern architecture, music and dance, and particularly to
film. Kassák was the first to present contemporary Russian art in
Hungary. The journal’s compass went well beyond the accepted boundaries
of art of the time. It gave space to new lines of enquiry like the
multifaceted study of society and social issues in art. The public of
the time, however, was not receptive to this new approach, and
Dokumentum petered out after a year.
The Munka Ci rcle (1928 – 1934)
Driven
by his vision of the workers as a force for transforming society,
Kassák took up the cause of workers’ education in the late 1920s.
Setting himself the goal of educating young people in
class-consciousness
and solidarity, he founded the journal Munka [Work] in 1928 and brought
together students and young workers into what became known as the Munka
Circle. Kassák gradually built up the Kulturstudió (“Cultural Studio”),
approaching worker education as a whole way of life, through a unity of
organised activities, entertainment, recreation and education. His
ambitious aims drew contributions from several fine teachers and
artists. Jolán Simon organised a speaking choir, Sándor Jemnitz a
modern- music chamber chorus, and György Justus a folk-song choir based
on Bartók-Kodály principles. The painting group of the Circle was led by
students of the Academy of Fine Arts – Béla Hegedüs, György Kepes,
Dezső Korniss, Ernő Schubert, Sándor Trauner and Lajos Vajda – whom
Kassák had met at a joint Schubert-Trauner exhibition in the Mentor
Bookshop. The Munka Circle was a culturally and politically open group,
and its members constantly brought with them more and more new people,
friends and colleagues.
The spirit of the Munka journal, and the
subjects of its articles, focused on the social reality of the time
rather than the issues of art itself. Most of the essays published in
Munka were based on
the world of fact, and social analysis, technical
progress, collective action and physical culture were constant themes.
The format of the journal and its low price also served to bring this
information to as wide a readership as possible.
The
Circle was eventually brought to an end by an Interior Ministry decree
of 1934. The Kulturstudió and other national speaking choirs and
cultural groups were banned, but the disintegration of the Munka Circle
was accelerated by internal tensions. Munka was able to carry on
publishing for another five years, until 1939, maintaining throughout
the highest standards of any left-wing journal. Its articles criticised
fascism and Stalinism, and attempted to propagatethe message that
without culture, the masses were vulnerable to manipulation by extreme
political forces.
In the 1930s, Kassák started to take an
interest in photography as a documentary medium, although he did not
take photographs himself. The intellectual milieu of Munka nurtured the
Hungarian sociophotographic movement, which was active between 1930 and
1932. During this period, it held the first Hungarian sociophotographic
exhibition and published the first Hungarian sociophotographic book, A
mi életünkből (From Our Lives). This marked the end-point of two years
of collective studio work which had resulted in several publications at
home and abroad, three exhibitions in Budapest, and two abroad.
Photomontage
The
exhibition’s section on the Munka Circle includes Kassák’s
photomontages, aimed at conveying how social movements (and not just the
workers’ movement) related to visuality. The demands of accessibility
and visibility and the use of the most advanced means of communication
were basic criteria for Kassák’s workingclass culture-building
manifesto. The montage, powerfully persuasive and easily interpreted,
served as a visual channel for these efforts. Its visual language proved
more effective and communicative than any pamphlet, appeal or
manifesto.
After the Second World War
In
the brief democratic interlude following the Second World War, Kassák
became actively involved in public affairs as vicechairman of the Arts
Council, a consultant body to the Ministry of Religion and Education,
editing its journal Alkotás (1947–48). This represented progressive
views, domestic and European, in the broadest sense. In the same years
he also edited Kortárs, a literary and social affairs journal attached
to the Social Democratic Party. In 1947, Kassák became a member of
Parliament for that party. Both journals were closed after the Communist
takeover, and Kassák was excluded from both public and intellectual
affairs. This effectively marked the end of the prominent role he had
played as a shaper of social and artistic life for several decades. His
house in Békásmegyer became a place of exile and solitude. His official
treatment changed only after 1956, when he became accepted as a writer,
but still had no outlet as an artist. The works of his later artistic
period and the phases of literary canonisation appear in this exhibition
only as markers, but the digital exhibits present these in more depth.
Literary work
The
visual presentation of Kassák’s literary work forms As part of its
all-embracing approach to Kassák’s wide-ranging activity, the exhibition
includes a visual presentation of his literary work, journalism and
criticism. The chronology of work published during his life gives a good
picture of both his activities as a writer and his periods of silence.
The regular republication of some of his books indicates the growing
appreciation of his writing, and the titles also reveal the subjects and
approaches that preoccupied him at various stages of his career. Since
Kassák designed many of his own book covers, these also give an
impression of his changing artistic outlook.
Kassák’s reception as an artist
Although
the Kádár-era cultural authorities recognised Kassák as a writer and
rewarded him with the highest state honours, they never accepted his
artistic output during his lifetime. His life’s work went on display in
Hungary only once, a few months before his death, at his own expense,
and in the humble surroundings of the Adolf Fényes Room in Budapest.
By
contrast, international developments brought him renewed recognition in
his old age. In the 1960s, Western art historians and art dealers alike
rediscovered the Eastern European avant garde. This resurgence of
interest launched Kassák back into the European artistic current. In his
final years, his works appeared in several individual and collective
exhibitions, mainly in Western Europe.