Sándor Bortnyik

Born 1893 in Siebenbürgen. Studied at the Budapest Free School under Kernstock and Rippl-Ronai, 1910. In 1918, joined the MA group and become one of its most important members. Immigrated to Vienna in 1920. Developed image architecture with Lajos Kassák. In 1922 published in various magazines put out by Hungarian emigrants in Vienna. Arrived in Bauhaus Weimar upon invitation from Farkas Molnár in 1922 and lived there until 1924. He was interested in the Bauhaus and Oskar Schlemmer's theater workshop, and attended Van Doesburg's De Stijl classes. Exhibited at the Galerie Der Sturm in 1922 in Berlin. Participated in the Congress of Dadaists and Constructivists in Weimar. Returned to Budapest in 1925 and founded the avant-garde theater, Zöld Szamár (Green donkey). In 1927, art editor for Uj Föld (New earth) magazine. Founded and directed the school for advertising design (Műhely, or little Bauhaus) from 1928-38. Edited Plakat magazine in 1933. Taught at the college of applied arts in 1948-49. Director at the college of fine arts in Budapest between 1949 and 1956. Died in 1976 in Budapest.

Bortnyik remained an outsider at the Bauhaus, he never enrolled, although took an active part in their parties and meetings. As a painter, he planned to write a book on Schmidt's set designs from an outsider's point of view. Although his plan never came to fruition, his critical view of the combined effects of De Stijl and Bauhaus in Weimar was clearly expressed in one of his (later destroyed) paintings. Van Doesburg, leaning out from the 'prison' of Neoplasticism, stares at a female Bauhaus student who is balancing on a rope, with a ball in her hand. This sarcastic criticism finishes with a view of the new row houses then being planned: a sharp contradiction between what is desirable and rational on one hand and what is left over and can be experienced on the other. This dilemma could not be solved in the Weimar Republic either, due to the increasing pressure of the right-wing municipality.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%A1ndor_Bortnyik

See also: Műhely, Hungary#Avant_garde