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)

as author, he became a principal member of staff, under Kassák’s direction. In 2*2, however, he took up the lofty position of co-editor. The “two” in the title was an embodiment the journal’s co-editorial structure. Howdid Németh earn this position, and how did the other members of the MA circle come to respect his elevated status? He had first met Kassák before the First World War on the editorial board of the literaryjournal Renaissance, when Németh was translating F. T. Marinetti’s free verses from French on the pages of Új Revü [New Review], As co-editor, therefore, Németh did not fall short of Kassák in support for the new radical modernity.

In a cruel turn of fate, Németh fell into dramatic and almost irretrievable oblivion during the war years. In summer 1914, he travelled to Paris with his friend Andor Révész to make contact with newest representatives of the proliferating schools and studios - the Naturists, Unanimists, Cubists and Si- multanists. They seemed to have realized their aim. The greatest catch, which Németh was to remember proudly many years later, was his meeting with Apollinaire. This thread of the story highlights the heightened attention Németh paid - despite his competence in both German and French culture - to the French schools of avant-garde, including the French transmission of Italian Futurism. At home, Kassák also took up the German threads, and his initial French connections gradually withered. Whereas Kassák went on to set up the journals A Tett [The Action] and MA and publish collections of avant-garde poetry, Németh, having been stuck in Paris at the time of mobilization, spent five years in internment camps on French islands in the Atlantic, hermetically cut off from the cultural life of Hungary.

A STORY OF EXTRAORDINARY COOPERATION

Németh steadfastly maintained his openness to new schools of art, and immediately upon settling in Vienna, he sought out Kassák’s group of émigrés from the Hungarian Soviet Republic. He was impressed by the accomplishments of his new friends, and unhesitatingly followed Kassák and the Hungarian avant-garde throughout the period, even in their most audacious Dadaist 5 6 7

5 The Hungarian political, social and art journal Reniassance (1910-1911), under the direction of Árpád Zigány, had a special focus on German-speaking culture and was financially supported by Franz Ferdinand by aiming at reinforcing dynastic centralism of the Habsbourgs.

6 F.T. Marinetti, A következtetések ellen, A hullámok harsonája [Against conclusions, Trump of waves], translated by Andor Németh, Új Revü, 3 April 1913, 43.

7 György Tverdota, Németh Andor, Egy közép-európai értelmiségi a XX. század első felében [Andor Németh, A Central-European intellectual in the first half of the 20th century], vol. I., Budapest, Balassi, 2009, 41-52.

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