Baják László Ihász István: The Hungarian National Museum History Exhibition Guide 4 - The short century of survival (1900-1990) (Budapest, 2008)

Room 16. From the Belle Epoch to the Collapse of the Monarchy (1900-1919). László Baják

toricizing and eclectic style was more closely attached to the Establishment, an increasingly greater space was given to impressionist, post-impressionist and secessionist art, and even the more radical avant-garde appeared upon the scene. Art became busier, more rest­less and even rebellious, evidently reflecting what was happening in society. The literary revolution was kick-started by the appearance in 1906 of Endre Ady's volume, Új versek ("New Verses") and of the journal Nyugat ("West"), which contained the new poetry of Dezső Kosztolányi, Mihály Babits, Gyula Juhász and Árpád Tóth. In art, the "Eight" group - Róbert Berény, Dezső Czigány, Béla Czóbel, Károly Kernstock, Ödön Márffy, Dezső Orbán, Bertalan Pór and Lajos Tihanyi - expressed what literature was expressing in Nyugat. In modern architecture, for instance in the work of Ödön Lechner, Secession created from the fusing of eastern exotic and Hungarian folk motifs held sway. In music, in Zoltán Kodály's case motifs of folk music origin dominated, while in the case of Béla Bartók folk and expressive elements of avant-garde music were mixed. Both of them spent years on col­lecting tours the villages armed with phono­graphs. Under the intellectual leadership of Lajos Kassák, the journals Tett and Ma ("Deed" and "Today") went furthest in organ­ised activism in the art revolution. Perhaps the most talented among the artists of expressive, agitative art was Sándor Bortnyik. This art, as Secession Interior from the beginning of the 20th century with phonograph (exhibition detail)

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