Csaplár Ferenc szerk.: Lajos Kassák / The Advertisement and Modern Typography (1999)

Ferenc Csaplár: Kassák the Book and Advertisement Artist

FERENC CSAPLÁR KASSÁK THE BOOK AND ADVERTISEMENT ARTIST Issues of the art of book design and advertising occupied Kassák from the beginning of his career. As early as when he was readying the publication of his first two volumes, he sought to arouse interest in them even with their outward forms. To design their covers, he asked two real, reputedly eccentric masters of contemporary Hungarian graphic art, Béla Uitz and Lajos Gulácsy. His choice of participants in the shaping of the external image of his collection of short stories entitled Életsiratás (Lamenting Life

; 1912) and his volume of plays entitled Isten báránykái (God's Little Lambs

; 1914) may be regarded as the first manifestations of the future book and advertisement artist. The eye-catching effect of the two remarkable covers was a result of both the graphics and the titles, the latter being Kassák's invention. His often quoted statement from that time, "The cover is more than significant,"

1 also acknowledges that a writer seeking to arouse public interest needs to take special care when choosing a title. He employed unusual means to achieve an eye-catching effect in devising the title of his volume of verse published in 1915: Éposz Wagner maszkjában {An Epic in Wagner's Mask). We know from Kassák's autobiography and correspondence how much thought and conscious deliberation he put into creating the titles of his first two magazines. A Tett (The Act), the title of the anti-militarist literary and arts journal launched in the autumn of 1915, perfectly expressed the aspirations of the Hungarian avant-garde movement he organised; it alluded to its German sister movement, and recognised through the psychology of advertising that one can make an impact, arouse interest and successfully participate in the marketplace of ideas and goods by deviating from the ordinary. It was due to the large-scale expansion of sales-oriented and political posters in Hungary and their role in the social struggles of the 191 Os and in the war years that Kassák, in discussing the relationship between posters and the new painting, formulated his programme

2 of a new, revolutionary art in his new journal, Ma (Today), which was established in the autumn of 1916 after A Tett had been banned. For this new style of painting, he enumerated the following requirements: abandonment of "contemplation" and "aestheticism"; "radicalism"; "a subversive, revolutionary temperament"; "a worldsubverting gusto"; "evocative power"; "agitative" character; "a free and self-willed style"; and the acceptance of the role of the "fighter and prophet", all of which he considered capacities already present in modern poster art. He also set down principles for good posters and advertisements, as he recognised that "the good poster is not only a business medium but an artistic product as well, one that can be readily enjoyed and evaluated, much like a landscape or portrait". The position taken by Kassák was significant in the history of art. At least half a decade ahead of his foreign contemporaries, the leader of the Hungarian avant-garde proposed the thesis that the possibility of establishing a mass art is inherent in applied and advertisement art.

3 The fact that he conceived of advertisements and posters as the embodiments of a new creative force and a new link to reality is witnessed not only by his work as an art theorist but also by his poem „Hirdetőoszloppal" ("With an Advertising Pillar"). This artistic statement, which was inspired by big city advertisements and posters, appeared in the opening poem of his volume of verse published as 1918 and thus signalled that he as the poet had come to idealise the poster-poem, which he considered literature in the guise of an advertisement.

4 As editor of Ma, he made quite an impact with his advertisement-like covers by using individually designed variations on the title, which gave the impression of monumentality through their proportions; a thick black rule especially emphasising the titles; and various artistic reproductions. These reproductions, which represented individual varieties of Cubism, Expressionism and Futurism, fundamentally deviated from what was considered standard in painting, graphic arts and sculpture at the time. It was novel at the time even for foreign avant-garde publications for him to place manuscript scores on the cover of Ma's Bartók issue, which came out on 1 February 1918. The covers of the Special World View Issues of the journal which appeared after autumn 1918, with their format, their openly agitative pictorial material, their propagandistic titles and texts, might well be regarded as political posters. In the final moments of the Commune, Kassák, as theorist, movement organiser and magazine editor, played an important role in inducing the artists associated with Ma Bertalan Pór, Róbert Berény, Béla Uitz, József Nemes Lampérth, and János Kmetty - to embrace direct political agitation. Their powerful posters, which were created by way of a partly distorting, partly abstract vision of form, became the focus of a debate on the relationship between art and the masses and on the evaluation of the work of the Hungarian Activists. The social democratic magazine, Az Ember (Man), attacked the poster artists associated with Ma for having ignored the principle of plain understanding. Kassák defended the poster artists of the Ma circle by referring to the Russian Futurists and their propaganda work.

5 Kassák's work as publisher, editor and theorist, his activities as the poster censor of the People's Commissariat on Public Education in the first weeks of the Commune, and his discussions and debates

6 with the designers of sales-oriented and political posters were a prelude to his work in almost all areas of the arts of book design and advertising on which he embarked in 1920. From March 1921, not only did he shape Ma as editor, but as typographer, he designed the cover, the pages and advertisements for each issue. He also made the cover designs for the book series published by Ma from 1921, contributing to much of the typography of the pages as well. Around 1920, he produced a series of newspaper collages which can be regarded as works of both fine art and fine advertising. His drawn or mounted compositions of 65