Bakos Katalin - Manicka Anna szerk.: Párbeszéd fekete-fehérben, Lengyel és magyar grafika 1918–1939 (MNG, Warszawa–Budapest, 2009)

III. KATALÓGUS - 2. HAGYOMÁNYKERESÉS - - Könyvillusztráció

The artists themselves were intent on finding modes of expression associated with literary texts. In Hungary struggling with serious social problems after the major historical traumas, many artists rejected aesthetic experimentation and the principle of art for art's sake, declaring as their aim to create art of definite, concrete contents. They strove to give a comprehensive interpretation of their age, which they hoped to achieve with the help of the emblematic works of world literature, the masterpieces of contemporary art and the Bible. Bibliophile books of the early 1920s included both relief and flat-surface printing frequently. Arnold Gara's Onegin illustrations produced in etching were highly praised by criticism. The meticulously elaborated decorative sheets and the method of stylistic quotations allude to the versatile art deco designer who began his career as a painter. Dezső Fáy first earned a name with his lithographed book illustrations. In 1929 he was commissioned by the Franklin publishing house to illustrate the comic epic of János Arany, The Gypsies of Nagyida. Fáy used the legacy of medieval German tradition, thin-line woodcut to render the characteristic figures, grotesque scenes conjuring up the Hungary of the 19th century. In his illustrations to Dante's Divine Comedy, the impact of expressionism, the great contributor to the woodcut in the 20th century, can be felt; here the proportions of black and white colours, and the role of line and patch are more balanced. Though contemporary reviews of the series mentioned the Révai publishing house and there was a practical Dante revival in literature, Fay's illustrations did not appear in book form. Anna Bartoniek made her Dante illustrations without commission, driven by her own interest. On the centenary of Goethe's death in 1932 there was an international exhibition in Leipzig. Rendering homage, 100 typographers prepared their commemorative compositions and 100 graphic artists put a few prints on display to illustrate some discretional scene from Faust. Hungarians were involved in both categories, seven in the graphic section. The pictures of Pál Molnár-C. and József Divéky shown here, too, are characterized by a harmonious balance of modernity and archaizing. Lőrinc Szabó's cycle of poems From Morning till Evening. In Memory of a Flight was published with Pál Molnár-C.'s illustrations upon an order from the Association of Bibliophiles. Lőrinc Szabó described his experience of an airplane flight in vers-iibre. An admirer of modern lifestyle, the city and speed, Pál Molnár-C. proved to be an inspired illustrator of the poems. His montage-like compositions combine elements of several modernist trends, expressionism, futurism and even surrealism. AM: Together with the advances in artistic graphics, a bibliophilic demand for a beautiful book developed in Poland in the interwar period. This was a kind of a paradox, because graphics - as a popular art - suddenly changed into a luxury product, predestined for bibliophiles. A book entitled Prints in a Book, in a Portfolio and on the Wall. Discursive Remarks on the Graphic Pure Breed of Engraving by Tadeusz Cieślewski is an example of a perfect book, illustrated - obviously with prints, with an original typesetting, having not much in common with any realities. Cieślewski thoroughly analysed the problem of pagination, initials, and headings from the aesthetic and functional point of view. The final effect was a beautiful book, which one could read, but which directed the reader's attention to its refined or even over-refined form. Stefan Mrozewski's portfolio engravings constitute another example of illustrations which would be hard to combine with any text. However, these were still the times when books were used for reading, even if they were luxury editions with original prints. A beautiful book of that period was flat, one could easily open it and read it without much effort, it did not resemble the post-war artistic books, where the book itself was a work of art, generally connected to the basic literary text to a very small degree.