Gosztonyi Ferenc - Király Erzsébet - Szücs György szerk.: A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria Évkönyve 2002-2004. 24/9 (MNG Budapest, 2005)

INDIVIDUAL RESEARCH. PHD THESES AT THE HUNGARIAN NATIONAL GALLERY - Katalin Bakos: Sándor Bortnyik's Activity as Graphic Designer and Teacher, 1914-1938

more generally accepted principles. In 1933 Bortnyik started his own journal, Plakát (Poster). Under the increasing stress of the Great Depression new advertising strategies appeared, which required a more verbose, associative kind of expression. 'Objective' advertisement, which focused the attention on the object promoted, was replaced by the method of 'arousing desire'. This had its effect on Bortnyik's graphic design, though his representations remained concentrated and the visual element self-sufficient. In tracking the course of Bortnyik's career, the dates of the works, the dissertation relies chiefly on hitherto unpublished source material. Since my approach is one of genre history, I only refer to Bortnyik's painting and original graphics, more thoroughly discussed in the Hungarian literature, only insofar as it is helps to understand his graphic design. His works in advertising and book design, on the other hand, were mostly closely related to Bortnyik's endeavours in theatre, photography, animated cartoons and applied design, which are consequently discussed. The dissertation contains a list of graphic design works by Bortnyik, which covered all segments of the field at the time. Included were not only pieces held in public and private collections, but unavailable works as well whose existence is corroborated by photos, republication or references in the press or other documents (contracts, letters). The dissertation also aimed to delve into the activity of Bortnyik's private school of graphic design, Műhely (Workshop). Personal interviews, reviews, letters and recollections of the elderly artist helped me reconstruct the history and activity of the school, dismissing some of the legend created by a decade of operation and the sobriquet 'Hungarian Bauhaus'. Conservative arts training at the Budapest School of Applied Arts remained immune to the kind of reforms that sought to comply with the demands of modern mass production and technology, and which regenerated education in Germany. Private schools teaching design and graphic design (the schools of Almos Jaschik and Lajos Csabai Ekes) tried to make up for this gap in Hungary. Compared to the practice of these two schools - based as it still was on the aesthetics of the turn of the century -, Bortnyik's intentions were revolutionary: he wanted to pass his experiences of the Bauhaus on to a new generation of Hungarian designers. The closest parallel to his pedagogical model was Joost Schmidt's, who started a complex programme, one that combined basic arts training and graphic design, in the Bauhaus in 1928. The opponents of the dissertation were Gábor Pataki and Éva Forgács, and the degree was awarded 'summa cum laude'(2000). Findings of the research were used in the following publications: Bortnyik Sándor magániskolája, a Műhely 1928-1938 (Sándor Bortnyik's Private School, the Workshop, 1928-1938); Az Atelier művészeti tervező és műhelyiskola 1931-1948 (Atelier - Artistic Design and Practice School, 1931-1948). Both in: Szilvia Köves (ed.): Reform, alternatív és progresszív műhelyiskolák 1896-1944 (Reform, Alternative and Progressive Practical Schools, 1896-1944). Budapest, Magyar Iparművészeti Egyetem, 2003, pp. 11-11.