Bakos Katalin szerk.: Szivárvány Áruház és Nagyvilág, Káldor László (1905–1963) és Gábor Pál (1913–1992) (A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria kiadványai 2000/4)

"Parallel Lives:" László Káldor and Pál Gábor, two Hungarian graphic designers 1933-1963. Summary

Káldor worked purposefully with purely typographical tools, but he had a firm hand with the photo and photo montage as well. By now, the achievements of constructivist typography had become household words in design thanks to the efforts of artists Lajos Kassák, Sándor Bortnyik, Farkas Molnár and outstanding printers and typos such as Albert Kner and Miklós Biró, undergoing gradual modifications. The sweeping and transparent layout, the consciously created rhythm and articulation, the use of the black/white photo were retained. Typography, the whole of the letter composition became more varied, and it was the theme that determined whether small letter, block letter or antiqua types, at times special decor letters or any of their combinations were used. The fluent round hand spread in the '30s stressing personal involvement and ease, interrupting symmetry as a decorative, dynamic element. Its inclusion in typography was also promoted by the folkloristic hue it carried. It is the typographical equivalent of populistic figurai solution. Káldor united the functionalist principles with the new tendencies in his work. In this period, another new element enriched the dynamism derived from the inner articulating rhythm of photo of functional typography, and this new element became decisive for the whole subsequent career of Káldor. It is the "story", reading that takes place in time, which was alien to the so-far predominant, basically objective, laconic presentation. The whole idea of the advertisment unfolds in several phases, having leafed through the whole publication. The artist often begins with an enigmatic or absurd figure or text that assumes its meaning only later. Káldor's mainstay was a flair for story-telling and he was a most inventive joker. He cashed in on this method in advertisment design and prospectuses alike from the thirties. This narrative element is mainly included in adverts published in series, such as the retarted ad type. A witty example is a beer ad consisting of ordinary city-life scenes with the caption: What will happen on the nineteenth? (cat.no.: K. X. 21, pi. 14.) until it turns out that the drawing of the Bak and Porter beers will take place on the noted date. The comic strip genre can also be found among the posthumous papers of Káldor, in a thin long bootlet, probably from the war years, calling on people to return bottles. It comes from the necessary idealization of advertisment that the goods of the war crisis - such as the meat substitute Sertamin - was presented with humour in Káldor's advertisment (cat.no.: K. X. 17). In seasonal or occasional adverts the artist must concentrate the idea that best captures the advantages of the product in a single scene. Káldor's ads mostly appeared in dailies printed on poor quality paper, yet his vigorous, sweeping black-and-white brush drawings adequately rendering scenes, figures, typical characters, types were most effective in the roughest execution as well. Káldor made complex advertising graphic works for two companies from the late thirties to the war and partly during the war. The rich arsenal of expressive tools testified by the goods catalogues, prospectuses, newspaper ads of Tungsram ranging from photo montages through colour and black/white comic strip-like presentations to scenes utilizing farce and slapstick situations. The caricaturistic approach was so successful that Káldor was ordered to promote not only the Tungsram but also the Orion products in this tone in the fifties, too. Káldor planned an all-round image for the Fashion Store (Divatcsarnok) (stationary, invitation cards, business cards, catalogues) and boosting campaigns with shopwindows, ads and posters for trams. Especially in the small-size publications did he have to satisfy a new requirement, the national character expected by the Store management, with an emphatic folkloristic hue. Káldor forestalled the esthetic dangers: bathos, sentimentality, meticulous naturalism implied by the new requirement with subtle humour and stylization. A leading trait of the age - the coexistence of various styles in graphic design - was also present in Káldor's own career. Besides the internationally newly spreading "arousing" advertisment touching on the sentiments of the public and the increasingly vigorous "national" character of the thirties, the more objective graphic approach based on the tools of modernism had their say for quite a long time. After the war. The forties After the World War, both artists got much work soon. The social and political posters and ads were a new area of expression for them, as for many fellow artists. In this post-war period, the genre had a major role in mass communication, it being almost the only instrument of mobilizing the public to take part in the reconstruction, in election campaigns, of spreading health and sanitary information, of airing the news. The artists themselves were aware of the novel possibilities. In 1948 an exhibition was staged summarizing the achievements of the first peace years, introducing the artistic potentialities of poster design mainly in plans. Apart from advertising ideas, social themes were also presented, in search of new symbols for the reconstruction and the anti-war feelings. From among the forms of artistic expression, the finely shaped, neo-classical modelling of the forms elaborated by György Konecsni back in the thirties was decisive. After the war, a special feature of Konecsni's posters became reinforced: via the associations inspired by the metaphorical idiom of the poster and the emotionally saturated atmosphere, the elements of surrealism came to be incorporated in the compositions of sweeping decorativeness. Káldor and Gábor also designed posters modelled upon this convincing, effective example when they took part in the election campaign of the Social Democratic Party. The election campaigns of 1945 and '47 included several posters made with photo montages. This solution favoured by the leftist artists in the interwar years was chielfy used by artists working for the Communist Party, with reminiscences of Soviet avantgárdé art for the erudite public. Káldor and Gábor designed a dynamic poster of diagonal layout in red-black-white to promote the 3-year economic plan (cat.no.: K. 1.

15 and G. 1.

12. pi. 28., 25.). Both artists received commissions to design commercial posters. Pál Gábor inherited, as it were, the post of Róbert Berény filled in the 1920s and '30s at the rubber factory. He not only designed excellent posters to promote the factory commodities but also planned the cover of the home magazine A kerék [The wheel] of the factory with the care of his precedessor.

6 Gábor's commercial posters made between 1946 and 1948 were in the line of the objective and at the same time inventive works of the thirties. In the poster The MRGbycicle tyre wins (cat.no.: G. I. 9, pi. 38.) it is clearly observable what survived from the graphic arsenal of earlier periods and what new elements were added. The dynamically drawn cyclist with the tyre - the advertised product - held in his hand with a compositional accent echoes the gimmicks of the interwar years. The reduced modelling and tendency for two-dimensional representation led to stylizing abstraction, which was a marked sign of the new outlook together with the Egyptienne type spreading in popularity in the 1940s. The printing technique of autotype also shifted the image