A Debreceni Déri Múzeum Évkönyve 1988 (Debrecen, 1990)

Művészettörténet - Bíró Katalin: Egy parasztpárti politikus a népművészetről 1947-ben

culture from a social point of view and he thought over its consequences steadily — which was entirely new till then. For Bibó István the basic problem was the Hungarian peasantry's obtaining its human and social emancipation, therefore he judged all the facts — including also the culturing of peasantry — whether they supported or hindered at reaching that purpose. Naturally he came to the conclusion that traditional peasant culture had to decay parallel with the disintegration of traditional peasant communities and manners. In these he represented Erdei Ferenc's standpoint. However, Bibó István exceeded in that he dared to declare that — though the values of folk

1 art would have to be preserved and treasured' according to their aesthetical values in some way — they, comprehensing the culturing possibilities of peasants, had to take it into account that the majority of peasantry in those years would take over the lower middle-class culture from towns and folk art and traditional peasant culture must not be preserved by obligations. These seem to be the major values of Bibó István's writing and, at the same time, these were just the very points at which he was argued by the two other articles. The paper, setting the different arguments against one another must draw the conclusion that Veres Peter's and Muharay Elemér's arguments did not reach the values of Bibó István's thoughts, however, they are remarkable writings in so far as they show up such a demand for the omnipotence of the state even in the fields of culture and art, which paved the way politically for the realization of the communist party's then starting and later following efforts pointing in a similar direction. 351