Janus Pannonius Múzeum Évkönyve 26 (1981) (Pécs, 1982)
Művészettörténet - Körner Éva: Nyolcak és aktivisták
NYOLCAK ÉS AKTIVISTÁK 203 Hungary, in the preparatory period of the political revolution. (In Russia, the already accomplished revolution is soon to take the arts into its services.) This uniqu condition draws the characteristics of Hungarian art which differs sharply from the others, uniting the classic and current, permanence and motion, art for its own sake and the art of propaganda. Does „Bildarchitektur" in its apperent abstractness separate itself from events outside of esthetics? Not at all: Kállai, s words touched teh core of the question when he pointed to „Bildarchitektur" as a manifestation of the revolutionary will, that is not an introverted concept but one which tries to be outwardly effective. But by then, instead of realistic revolutionary action only its symbolis representation became possible. In the present of 1921, only the very distant future could be an effective ideal. „Bildarchtektur" is just as yearning, longing to be realized, as was the Bertalan pór picture with the symbolic title: „Yearning for pure Love". It was probably the result of activism, the desire to be outwardly effective, that „Bildarchitektur" was never a closed system as Russian suprematism and Dutch neoplasticism had been. It proved apt to integrate into the arst which, after 1916, after having returned from emigration, became active in the practical aspects of politics. The striking force of the Eight and activism is best proven by the fact that its concepts of form, its spirit appear in all great achievents of Hungarian art since then, from Derkovits through the Szentendreians, from Lajos Vajda through today. Because what is most surprising in its ethical and formal severity is this bravery of its initiative. They created the figure of the artist who leaves the pedestal hights and goes down into 1 the street to speak - symbolically - trough street frescos, through posters, who is not arfraid to leave the secure grounds of artistic genres. He is very much interested in everything ordinary, „modern", be it experiencing the metropolis, the commercial or the movie. He investigates everything and creates from everything. He is interested in the wordl not only as an artist, but concretely takes part in the events, even accepting prison or exile to defend his principles. He, in Kassák, s words „will not place a laurel wreath on things past" and does not recognize any institutionalized art or political system. Thus, it is not sprprising that all institutionalized art and system tried to anihilate all trace of this movement. It is thus a great revelation that this first largescale, Hungarian exhibition introduces the mv^st significant works of the Eight and the Activists.
