MA

MA group in Vienna, c. 1922.

MA journal, cover, 1924. Design by Lajos Kassák.

MA was a Hungarian group of artists and writers and an avant-garde magazine, both active between c1916 and 1926. MA refers to the movement 'Magyar Aktivizmus' [Hungarian Activism], and was also derived from the Hungarian for 'today'.

Founded by the writer and artist Lajos Kassák, the magazine MA: Internacionális aktivista müvészeti folyóirat first appeared in November 1916, and until it was banned on 14 July 1919 it was published in Budapest, at first edited solely by Kassák and from 1917 onwards together with Béla Uitz. From 1 May 1920 until its demise in mid-1926 MA was published in Vienna under Kassák's sole editorship. It was the most important forum for Hungarian Activism, and over the years its members included Sándor Bortnyik, Péter Dobrovic (1890–1942), Lajos Gulácsy, János Kmetty, János Máttis Teutsch, László Moholy-Nagy, Jószef Nemes Lampérth, Béla Uitz among others.

The first issue had a Cubist cover by the Czech artist Vincenc Benes and an article by Kassák entitled "A plakát es az uj festészet" [The poster and the new painting] (MA, 1:1, pp 2-4), which set the revolutionary tone of the group. The article suggested that painting should aspire to the same aggressive power as that achieved by posters: "The new painter is a moral individual, full of faith and a desire for unity! And his pictures are weapons of war!". Many members of the MA group did in fact produce posters during the short Communist regime under Béla Kun in 1919; Uitz, for example, designed Red Soldiers, Forward! (1919).

Issues

MA 9:3-4 (20 Feb 1924). PDF.

MA 9:5 (15 Apr 1924). PDF.

MA 9:6-7 (1 Jul 1924). PDF.

MA 9(8-9): "Musik und Theater Nummer" (15 Sep 1924). PDF.

MA (15 Jan 1925). PDF.

MA (15 Jun 1925). PDF.

The above PDFs are sourced from Bibliothèque Kandinsky.

• Scans of the full run in ÖNB-ANNO.
• Bibliography, comp. Ilona Illés, 1975.

Literature

• Oliver A.I. Botar, "From the Avant-Garde to 'Proletarian Art'. The Émigré Hungarian Journals Egység and Akasztott Ember, 1922-23", Art Journal 52(1): "Political Journals and Art, 1910-40", College Art Association, Spring 1993, pp 34-45; exp.version as "From Avant-Garde to 'Proletkult' in Hungarian Émigré Politico-Cultural Journals, 1922-1924", in Art and Journals on the Political Front 1910-1940, ed. Virginia Hagelstein Marquardt, University Press of Florida, 1997, pp 100-141. (English)
• Edit Toth, From Activism to Kinetism: Modernist Spaces in Hungarian Art. Budapest-Vienna-Berlin, 1918-1930, Pennsylvania State University, 2009, 335 pp. Dissertation. (English)
• Éva Forgács, Tyrus Miller, "The Avant-Garde in Budapest and in Exile in Vienna: A Tett (1915-6), Ma (Budapest 1916-9; Vienna 1920-6), Egység (1922-4), Akasztott Ember (1922), 2x2 (1922), Ék (1923-4), Is (1924), 365 (1925), Dokumentum (1926-7), and Munka (1928-39)", in The Oxford Critical and Cultural History of Modernist Magazines, Vol. 3: Europe, 1880-1940, Oxford University Press, 2013, pp 1128-1156. (English)
• Művészet akcióban – Kassák Lajos avantgárd folyóiratai A Tett-től a Dokumentumig (1915-1927), eds. Eszter Balázs, Edit Sasvári, and Merse Pál Szeredi, Budapest: Petőfi Irodalmi Múzeum–Kassák Múzeum & Kassák Alapítvány, 2017. TOC. [1] (Hungarian)
  • Art in Action: Lajos Kassák's Avant-Garde Journals from A Tett to Dokumentum (1915-1927), eds. Eszter Balázs, Edit Sasvári, and Merse Pál Szeredi, Budapest: Petőfi Literary Museum--Kassák Museum & Kassák Foundation, 2017. TOC. [2] (English)

See also

• Hungary#Avant-garde

Links

• MA in NYPL Digital Library
• Ma journal at DADA Companion
• MA journal at Hungarian Wikipedia

	Avant-garde and modernist magazines
Poesia (1905-09, 1920), Der Sturm (1910-32), Blast (1914-15), The Egoist (1914-19), The Little Review (1914-29), 291 (1915-16), MA (1916-25), De Stijl (1917-20, 1921-32), Dada (1917-21), Noi (1917-25), 391 (1917-24), Zenit (1921-26), Broom (1921-24), Veshch/Gegenstand/Objet (1922), Die Form (1922, 1925-35), Contimporanul (1922-32), Secession (1922-24), Klaxon (1922-23), Merz (1923-32), LEF (1923-25), G (1923-26), Irradiador (1923), Sovremennaya architektura (1926-30), Novyi LEF (1927-29), ReD (1927-31), Close Up (1927-33), transition (1927-38).

	Full list
Entretiens politiques et littéraires (1890-93), Moderní revue (1894-1925), Volné směry (1897-1948), Mir iskusstva (1898-1904), Vesy (1904-09), Poesia (1905-09, 1920), Zolotoe runo (1906-10), The Mask (1908-29), Apollon (1909-17), Ukraïnska khata (1909-14), Der Sturm (1910-32), Thalia (1910-13), Rhythm (1911-13), Trudy i dni (1912), Simbolul (1912), The Glebe (1913-14), Ocharovannyi strannik (1913-16), Revolution (1913), Blast (1914-15), The Little Review (1914-29), Futuristy (1914), Zeit-Echo (1914-17), The Egoist (1914-19), L'Élan (1915-16), 291 (1915-16), Orpheu (1915), La Balza futurista (1915), MA (1916-25), SIC (1916-19), flamman (1916-21), The Blindman (1917), Nord-Sud (1917-18), De Stijl (1917-20, 1921-32), Dada (1917-21), Klingen (1917-20, 1942), Noi (1917-25), 391 (1917-24), Modernisme et compréhension (1917), Anarkhiia (1917-18), Iskusstvo kommuny (1918-19), Formiści (1919-21), S4N (1919-25), La Cité (1919-35), Aujourd'hui (1919), Exlex (1919-20), L'Esprit nouveau (1920-25), Orfeus (1920-21), Action (1920-22), Proverbe (1920-22), Ça ira (1920-23), Zenit (1921-26), Kinofon (1921-22), Het Overzicht (1921-25), Jednodńuwka futurystuw (1921), Nowa sztuka (1921-22), Broom (1921-24), Život (1921-48), Creación (1921-24), Jar-Ptitza (1921-26), New York Dada (1921), Aventure (1921-22), Spolokhi (1921-23), Gargoyle (1921-22), Veshch/Gegenstand/Objet (1922), Kino-fot (1922-23), Le Coeur à barbe (1922), Die Form (1922, 1925-35), 7 Arts (1922-28), Manomètre (1922-28), Ultra (1922), Út (1922-25), Dada-Jok (1922), Dada Tank (1922), Dada Jazz (1922), Mécano (1922-23), Contimporanul (1922-32), Zwrotnica (1922-23, 1926-27), Secession (1922-24), Stavba (1922-38), Gostinitsa dlya puteshestvuyuschih v prekrasnom (1922-24), Putevi (1922-24), Klaxon (1922-23), Akasztott Ember (1922-23), MSS (1922-23), Perevoz Dada (1922-49), Egység (1922-24), L'Architecture vivante (1923-33), Merz (1923-32), LEF (1923-25), G (1923-26), The Next Call (1923-26), Russkoye iskusstvo (1923), Disk (1923-25), Irradiador (1923), Surréalisme (1924), Almanach Nowej Sztuki (1924-25), La Révolution surréaliste (1924-29), Blok (1924-26), Pásmo (1924-26), DAV (1924-37), Bulletin de l'Effort moderne (1924-27), ABC (1924-28), CAP (1924-28), Athena (1924-25), Punct (1924-25), 75HP (1924), Le Tour de Babel (1925), Periszkop (1925-26), Integral (1925-28), Praesens (1926, 1930), Sovremennaya architektura (1926-30), bauhaus (1926-31), Das neue Frankfurt (1926-31), L'Art cinématographique (1926-31), Dokumentum (1926-27), Kritisk Revy (1926-28), Novyi LEF (1927-29), i 10 (1927-29), Nova generatsiia (1927-30), ReD (1927-31), Dźwignia (1927-28), Tank (1927-28), Close Up (1927-33), Horizont (1927-32), transition (1927-38), Discontinuité (1928), Munka (1928-39), Quosego (1928-29), Urmuz (1928), Unu (1928-32), Revista de Antropofagia (1928-29), 50 u Evropi (1928-29), Documents (1929-30), L'Art Contemporain - Sztuka Współczesna (1929-30), Adam (1929-40), Art concret (1930), Zvěrokruh (1930), Alge (1930-31), Le Surréalisme au service de la révolution (1930-33), Levá fronta (1930-33), Kvart (1930-37, 1945-49), Nová Bratislava (1931-32), Linja (1931-33), Spektrum (1931-33), Nadrealizam danas i ovde (1931-32), Ulise (1932-33), Die neue Stadt (1932-33), Mouvement (1933), PLAN (1933-36), Karavan (1934-35), Ekran (1934), Axis (1935-37), Acéphale (1936-39), Telehor (1936), aka (1937-38), Plastique (1937-39), Plus (1938-39), Les Réverbères (1938-39).