Csaplár Ferenc szerk.: Lajos Kassák / The Advertisement and Modern Typography (1999)
Ferenc Csaplár: Kassák the Book and Advertisement Artist
Munka Színpadstúdiója (Stage-studio of the Munka), 1932 China ink, collage on paper, 213x155 mm Kassák Museum That Kassák had already made use of lowercase typesetting in the early 1920s is attested to by „A ló meghal és a madarak kiröpülnek" {"The Horse Dies and the Birds Fly Away") and those parts of the numbered poems which have no uppercase characters. In Munka, Kassák type-set not only the titles in lowercase, but also the tables of contents and the advertisements on the left-hand sides of the covers. In the typographical shaping of the pages, Kassák followed avant-garde typography by using the decoration consisting of the rule and the magazine title, by having rules separate texts within columns, and also by setting headings in uppercase, bold, sans serif types. However, unlike the Bauhaus practice after 1925, he set columnar texts in antique type. He had already proceeded in this direction in designing Ma, Új művészek könyve, Tisztaság könyve, and Dokumentum. In the early 1920s, he had already realised what Tschichold was only to notice later, that the grotesque (i.e. sans serif) types so much cherished by Constructivist and especially Bauhaus typographers were excellent for titles but were tiring to the eye in longer sittings and did not meet the demands of readability. 5 1 The issues of Munka represent a process of classicisation with regard to avant-garde typography; its innovations were brought into being for the sake of expedience and task-conformity, they adhere to the principles of functionality and practicality regarded as central in Constructivism. From the mid-1920s, the eye-catching element in Kassák's advertisement graphics was often the photograph or the photomontage. The juxtaposition of elements different in character and origin as technical device and creative method was present in his work from the early 1920s. In this respect, his photographic and montage advertisements may be regarded as continuations of his typo- and newspaper collages. Continuity was also present in intention as well: his wish to arouse interest and to provoke had also been characteristic of the collages inspired by Dadaism and Constructivism. This was now supplemented by the recognition that suggesting associations, or using a "visual quotation" sug74
