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

towards incorporeal planarity. In the works of modern Hungarian poster design there has always been a drive towards the "completed image" - Pál Gábor's work is more "graphic", the elements of the composition are freer, floating over the picture surface calligraphically. This move towards a two-dimensional, sign-like application of forms was to be taken further in his posters later in the fifties. László Káldor continued the tradition of humorous, caricaturistic posters popular in Hungary from the beginning of the century. A bottle of Dreher beer at leasl! (cat.no.: K. 1.

11) is the symbol of the joy of life, the happiness of a new start after the war despite the incredible difficulties. The first poster was followed with a whole row of similarly mirthful beer adverts. The Fashion Store ordered Káldor to make adverts for trams who found out now a witty visualization of a slogan. Both Káldor and Gábor designed a poster about the great volte face of the economy: nationalization. State stores belong to the people! (cat.no.: K. 1.

30, pi. 37.) adds a merry gimmick "a little bird tells me" to the national tricolour of the signboard as a commonplace in the period. Pál Gábor's No use preserving

... buy preserves! (cat.no.: G. I. 15.) is also an example of the collective advert typical of the political and economic attitude adopted in the first phase of the planned economy: it popularized a group of products, instead of an individual brand. The target group was the "working woman" idealized in the period, whose life was allegedly made much easier by buying kitchen-ready food. Pál Gábor used a photo to visualize the working woman, to strengthen the reality of the figure. At that time, the use of photos was not characteristic of the commercial ads. The trick is in the effective mounting of the photo showing the woman from slightly above and in the diagonal placing of the inscription in Egyptienne, the fashionable type of the day. Both posters - that of the state stores and the one of the preserves - are typical examples of the mixing of propaganda and advertisment characterizing the era after the "year of the turn" [1948]. Several posters were made to advertise the poster exhibition of 1948, too. These were published by Pál Gábor representing the Free Union of Artists. One of the poster designs that was copied was also his work: the advertising pillar and the bill-poster - favourite motifs of the thirties - appear massively abstracted in his poster (cat.no.: G. 1.

10, pi. 47.). Their abstraction is increased by the contrast of the yellow and purple colours exerting an artificial effect. A poster for posters implies the character of ars poetica. This poster that had nothing to do with contemporary political, commercial or social themes indicates the course along which the Hungarian art of the poster would have progressed, had the pressure from the cultural policy not changed its direction. The fifties In the first half of the fifties the central task of designers was propaganda. Be the theme a political holiday, culture, leisure, vacations, construction, production or else, the job was to represent the optimistic and militant socialist person. The tone of the posters and flysheets was idyllic or heroic, the colours bright or clamorous, the rendering naturalistic. However, adverts did not cease to exist in the years of political dictatorship and shortage of goods, surviving in posters and ads made for foreign trade. Káldor designed the adverts of Tungsram and Orion in pen or pencil drawings, satisfying the requirements. In the fifties, the only outlet for his full-page ads using a combination of colour drawing and text, photo and typography, sometimes in the fashionable "kidney-shape" of Western magazines or spherical forms - were the prospectuses of foreign trade companies. He produced most of his prospectuses, product catalogues, logos, invitation cards for several foreign trade firms including Modex, Ferunion, Hungarotext, Tannimpex, Artex and Chemolimpex as well as the Chamber of Commerce and the Hungarian Advertising Company. The promotion materials of Hungarian foreign trade companies were also characterized by the complexity preponderant elsewhere in Europe combining colour drawings, black/white, rarely colour photos, printed and drawn letters, coloured underprints. Besides the excellent advertising photos, the overall effect was also owing to the use of various, transparent or colour paper of different factures and the light-handed fashion drawings. László Káldor "orchestrated" several such publications (cat.no.: K. VI. 31, pi. 55.; K.VI. 38, pi. 53.). The rich and varied body of the issue was often bound in simple cloth or grey plastic. The Hungarotex Magazine published in several languages and the spiral-bound heavy industry prospectuses were made with colour covers designs. Apart from prospectuses advertising the products of light - textile, leather, food - industries a large number of similar works were issued to promote the heavy industry exports by Nikex, Ferunion, Chemokomplex, among other firms. It required great skills to present clearly and spectacularly the exact industrial photos with the help of colour underprints or other page-articulating elements, interpreting typography and the coloured drawings of the plants. There were often visually attractive solutions on the covers and title-pages, with exact figures, tables, data inside. Káldor was a past master of lifelike factory representation and buoyant illustration, let alone inventive but always easily comprehensible layouts. The page-dividing underprint was often in geometrical forms, rounded, as it was prevalent in European adversiting styles. From faintly coloured photos of technical elements he created sophisticated "patterns", backgrounds, underprints. The commercial posters of Gábor and Káldor were also made for export. They advocated the products of Tungsram and Csepel with a colourful, pictorial, realistic, concentrated rendering of the subject. Gábor's Tungsram "F" (cat.no.: G. I. 22, pi. 51.) is more abstract: the massively foreshortened line of neon light in space assumed an abstract form in the black background. In the poster for Orion's thermos (cat.no.: K. 1.

43, pi. 52.) Káldor used the peculiar, almost luminous red and purple contrast, the large intense colour patches for a merry animation, faithfully to himself. In a group of his posters Gábor consistently used drawings stressing the structural elements, his work based on a specific transition between plane and space {Czechoslovak toy exhibition, 1956, cat.no.: G. I. 33, pi. 62.; Hungarian Pencils. Ferunion, 1956, cat.no.: G. I. 31, pi. 69.). Gábor's posters put up in the streets advertised exhibitions and other cultural events. Many of his cultural bills are masterpieces of typographic, emblematic solutions. In a white or black field, he composed the centered text in his favourite filigree serif type with the rigour of classicism, extended with a symbolic element (drawing hand represented like in an etching, Ionic capital, facade with tympan, perforated segment of film roll, Polish coat of arms). The posters stress the elevation of culture, tradition, yet they are modern, devoid of bathos or didactics, and they are effective esthetically, produced amidst the poorest printing conditions, in mono- or bichromie prints as well. The Poster exhibition (cat.no.: G. I. 34, pi. 64.) and the Festive Book Week (cat.no.: G. I. 35, pi. 63.) struck quite another tone in the