Lajos Kassák

Kassák in Vienna, c1922.
Born	March 21, 1887(1887-03-21) Érsekújvár, Austria-Hungary (now Nové Zámky, Slovakia)
Died	July 22, 1967(1967-07-22) (aged 80) Budapest, Hungary
Web	Wikipedia
Collections	MoMA

Lajos Kassák (1887–1967) was a Hungarian poet, novelist, painter, essayist, editor, and theoretician of the avant-garde.

Chronology

Based on the panel at permanent exhibition in the Kassák Museum, Budapest; there compiled from biographical text by Ferenc Csaplár.

• 1887: Born in Érsekújvár, Austria-Hungary.
• 1900: Leaves school for apprenticeship as locksmith.
• 1904: Moves to Budapest and starts working in factories in Angyalföld and Újpest. Participates in trades union political campaigns and joins Hungarian Social Democratic Party.
• 1908: First poem published in the weekly Újpest.
• 1909: Sets out for Western Europe on foot, with no money. Discovers art in the museums. Returns to Budapest in December.
• 1915: Founds anti-militarist periodical A Tett [The Action].
• 1916: The international issue of A Tett appears with contributions from writers and artists from countries at war with the monarchy, and the periodical is banned. Launches a new periodical MA [Today].
• 1919: During Hungarian Soviet Republic enters into dispute with Commissar Bela Kun over avant-garde art and the independence of art from politics. MA subsequently prevented from appearing. After the failure of the Soviet Republic spends five months in prison.
• 1920: After his release, leaves the country for exile in Vienna. Relaunches MA, formulates the theoretical basis of Hungarian constructivism and develops wide contacts with European avant-garde movements.
• 1926: Returns to Hungary and starts up new journal, Dokumentum [Document] which lasts for one year.
• 1928: Launches a new, independent, left-wing journal Munka [Work] and associated movement.
• 1928-34: Leader of a socially-aware educational society of students and workers, grouped around Munka. Writes regularly for the newspapers Népszava [People's Voice] and Szocializmus [Socialism], protesting against Stalinist tyranny and extreme right-wing movements.
• 1939: Exhibits in the Galerie Charpentier, Paris. A new law restricting press freedom closes down Munka.
• 1940-45: Publishes several novels, books of reports and books of verse. In 1940, an anti-war poem causes him to be imprisoned for two months under a 1937 court judgement.
• 1945: After the war takes on several positions in cultural affairs in the new political climate. Edits the relaunched Új Idők [New Times] and then the Alkotás [Art] and Kortárs [The Contemporary].
• 1948: His journals are closed down, he is excluded from public affairs, and his poems and articles cannot be published.
• 1956: Stands up for the Revolution, returns to artistic affairs.
• 1957: Public involvement limited, but his old writing begins to be republished.
• 1960: Exhibition of his work in the Galerie Denise René in Paris, resumption of his international career. Still ignored as an artist in Hungary.
• 1965: Awarded Kossuth Prize for his poetry.
• 1967: Holds the last exhibition in his life in the Adolf Fényes Room in Budapest, at his own expense.

Works

• 

  ET, 1921. Gouache, paper.

• 

  Volkstümliche Motive, c1921. Gouache on paper.

• 

  Cover of Buch Neuer Künstler, Vienna, 1922.

• 

  Képarchitektúra [Picture Architecture], 1922. Gouache on paper. 26 x 20 cm. [1]

• 

  Bildarchitektur. Silkscreen on thin cardboard.

• 

  Bildarchitektur II (Entwurf eines Kiosks), 1922. Gouache, cardboard.

• 

  Bildarchitektur [Kiosk], 1923. Gouache, ink, paper.

• 

  MA journal, cover, 1924.

• 

  Tó Mozi [Tó Kino], 1928.

• 

  Bühnenbild Munka.

Portraits

• 

  Photo by Ilka Révai, 1918.

• 

  in Budapest, c1927-28.

• 

  Photo by Lajos Lengyel, 1930.

• 

  in Budapest, 1964.

Publications

Magazines

• editor, A Tett, 17 numbers, 1915-16.
• editor, MA, 76 numbers, Budapest (1916-19) and Vienna (1919-25), 1916-25.
• editor, Akasztott Ember, 5 numbers, Vienna, 1922-23.
• editor, Dokumentum, 5 numbers, Budapest, 1926-27.
• editor, Munka, 65 numbers, Budapest, 1928-39.

Books

• Novelláskönyv: Válogatott novellák 1911-1919, Vienna: Bán-Verlag, 1921, 123 pp. (Hungarian)
• editor, with Lászlo Moholy-Nagy, Buch neuer Künstler, Vienna and Budapest: Aktivista Foliorat, 1922. An anthology of modern art and poetry. [2] (German)
  • Új művészek könyve, Bécs, 1922; repr., Budapest: Európa-Corvina, 1977, 104 pp. [3] (Hungarian)
• MA-Buch. Gedichte, trans. & intro. Andreas Gáspár, Berlin: Der Sturm, 1923, 62 pp, KHZ; facs., Budapest: Kassák Múzeum, 1999. (German)

• Egy ember élete, 3 vols. (Gyermekkor, Kamaszévek, Csavargások), Budapest: Dante, 1927. [4] [5] (Hungarian)
  • Als Vagabund unterwegs, trans. Friderika Schag, Berlin: Volk und Welt, 1979, 204 pp. (German)
  • Vagabondages, trans. & pref. Roger Richard, Séguier, 2020, 248 pp. Trans. of Csavargások. [6] (French)

• Kôň zomrie, vtáky sa rozletia, trans. Vojtěch Kondrót, Bratislava: Slovenský spisovateľ, 1971. Poems. (Slovak)
• more, more

Catalogues

• Kassák, eds. Ferenc Csaplár, Mariann Gergely, Péter György, and Gábor Pataki, Budapest: Magyar Nemzeti Galéria & Petőfi Irodalmi Múzeum, 1987. (Hungarian)
• Szász János, Kovács Tamás, Lappangó elem, Budapest: Kassák Museum, 1991. (Hungarian)
• Kassák Lajos: Érsekújvár, ed. Ferenc Csaplár, Budapest: Kassák Múzeum, 1992. (Hungarian)
• Kassák Lajos: Reklám és modern tipográfia, ed. Ferenc Csaplár, Budapest: Kassák Múzeum, 1999. (Hungarian)
  • Lajos Kassák: Reklame und moderne Typografie, ed. Ferenc Csaplár, Budapest: Kassák Museum, 1999. (German)
  • Lajos Kassák: The Advertisement and Modern Typography, ed. Csaplár Ferenc, Budapest: Kassák Múzeum, 1999. (English)
• Lajos Kassák. Botschafter der Avantgarde 1915-1927, Budapest: Literaturmuseum Petőfi & Kassák Museum, 2011, 101 pp. [7] (German)
• Jelzés a világba – Háború ∩ avantgárd ∩ Kassák, eds. Gábor Dobó and Merse Pál Szeredi, Budapest: Kassák Alapítvány, 2016. TOC. [8] (Hungarian)
  • Signal to the World: War ∩ Avant-Garde ∩ Kassák, eds. Gábor Dobó and Merse Pál Szeredi, Budapest: Kassák Foundation, 2016. [9] (English)

Literature

• Endre Gáspár, Kassák Lajos - az ember és munkája, Bécs, 1924. (Hungarian)

• Tomáš Štrauss, Kassák. Ein ungarischer Beitrag zum Konstruktivizmus, Cologne, 1975. (German)

• Emőke G. Komoróczy, Kassák és a magyar avantgárd mozgalom, 1995, 137 pp. (Hungarian)

• Marian Mazzone, "Dadaist Text / Constructivist Image: Kassák's Képarchitektúra", Hungarian Studies Review 31:1-2 (2004). (English)

• József R. Juhász, Péter H. Nagy (eds.), A Kassák-kód, Bratislava: Szlovákiai Magyar Írók Társasága, 2008, 206 pp. (Hungarian)

• Zoltán Péter, Lajos Kassák, Wien und der Konstruktivismus 1920-1926, Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2010, 316 pp. [10]. Review: Deréky (Kakanien 2010). (German)

• ...fejünkből töröljük ki a regulákat" Kassák Lajos az író, képzőművész, szerkesztő és közszereplő, ed. Andrási Gábor, Budapest: Petőfi Irodalmi Múzeum & Kassák Alapítvány, 2010. (Hungarian)

• Edit Sasvári, Merse Pál Szeredi (eds.), Úton 1909: Kassák, Szittya, hosszú versek, rövid forradalmak, Budapest: Petőfi Irodalmi Múzeum, and Budapest: Kassák Alapítvány, 2022, 420 pp. (Hungarian)
  • On the Road 1909: Kassák, Szittya, Long Poems, Short Revolutions, Budapest: Petőfi Literary Museum, and Budapest: Petőfi Literary Museum, 2022, 426 pp. Publisher. (English)

Documentary films

• Zavýjať po svojom [Howling Like We Do; Magunk módjára üvölten], dir. Asia Dér, 2022, 97 min. [11] [12]

See also

• Hungary#Avant_garde
• Central and Eastern Europe#Constructivists, Futurists

Links

• The Kassák Museum and the Kassák Foundation, Budapest.
• Biography on the website of the Kassák Museum.
• http://musessquare.blogspot.com/2011/03/kassak-lajos.html
• http://www.hunlit.hu/kassaklajos,en
• http://www.artpool.hu/Kassak/Kassak_quotationshu.html
• http://www.artpool.hu/Poetry/soundimage/Kassak.html
• http://www.artnet.com/artists/lajos-kassák/past-auction-results