Balázs Eszter: Art in action. Lajos Kassák's Avant-Garde Journals from A Tett to Dokumentum, 1915-1927 - The avant-garde and its journals 3. (Budapest, 2017)

György Tverdota: 2x2 - The Journal Edited by Lajos Kassák and Andor Németh (1922)

The fulcrum ofthe section edited by Kassák-and perhaps of the whole issue -was his poem The Horse Dies the Birds Fly Away. Here we will say no more than that the "walking poem” [poeme-promenade] appeared at a productive moment of Kassák’s transition from Dadaism to Constructivism. This dual orientation also shows up in his editorial choices. Jean Cocteau’s poems (translated by Endre Gáspár) tend in the Dada direction, while Alexander Archipenko’s drawing and László Medgyes’ essay represent an opening towards Constructivism. August Stramm’s long poem evoked the spirit of Expressionism. By contrast, Jean Epstein’s pamphlet vehemently attacking Freud was an attempt to bring down psychoanalysis, often regarded as a philosophical prop of Expressionism. Endre Gáspár was featured strongly in the second half of the journal. In addition to histranslation of Cocteau, he contributed a French, German, Italian and English review, and the theater critic János Mácza reported on the products of Russian modernity. [Figs. 4-8]

THE CONTEMPORARY RECEPTION OF 2*2

Kassákseemsto have had high hopes for hisjoint venture with Németh and was bitterly disappointed by its hostile reception. He complained in a letter to the writer Ödön Mihályi that “The journal was received with such odium that I will not be surprised if the publisher refuses his services. It seems that manna is not fit for Hungarians. They need lighter stuff. The same goes for writers as it does for journalists and the public’’.17 Then there was an outburst in a letter to Déry: “2*2 has seized up completely, but I should point out, not because we could not have sold 400-500 copies, but because everyone, all the so-called experts, out of obtuse professional jealousy or vain attention-seeking, were against it’’.18 Kassák was right. A promising venture had been cut short, portending the fate ofthe later journal Dokumentum, which lasted slightly longer but was also unfairly terminated.

17 Quoted in Ibid.

18 Ferenc Botka (ed.), Déry Tibor levelezése, 1901-1926 [The correspondence of Tibor Déry, 1901-1926], Balassi-Petőfi Irodalmi Múzeum, Budapest, 2006, 249-250.

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