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)
Márton Pacsika: Purposeful Player of the New Instrument - Lajos Kassák and the Budapest MA
as were those of Vincent van Gogh and Pablo Picasso. There were also poems by the symbolist Émile Verhaeren and drawings by Rembrandt. This apparent incoherence was in itself a statement that the journal was not committed to any single movement. [Figs. 9-16] The journal regularly covered international art events, and Mózes Kahána and Iván Hevesy wrote extended essays attempting to clarify how movements from Impressionism through Expressionism to Futurism differed from each other.22 The motivation for this - in addition to the general educational mission of MA - stemmed from frequent accusations from critics that the Kassák circle were themselves Futurists, despite their constant protests to the contrary. Rather than looking upon itself as a new artistic school, MA built on the experience of various international movements to proclaimed the creation of a “universal new art” and an associated worldview.23 Kassák declared that these avant-garde schools of art “destroy with their feelings", while he and his associates “are, in our minds, [...] the foundation-layers of opportunities for building”.24 That was what prompted MA to look beyond the domestic context and link up with international artistic ventures, movements and institutions. Der Sturm of Berlin may in several respects be regarded as the model for MA: Kassák assumed a similar central role in his own institution as Herwarth Walden did, and Der Sturm was, like MA, also active in other areas under the same “brand”. These included running a gallery, publishing books and organizing events. The Expressionism and left-wing orientation of Die Aktion, also of Berlin, was also an important model for MA. ACTIVISM AND REVOLUTIONS In its early period, the Budapest MA was, like A Tett, primarily anti-militarist, but after the end of the First World War, it increasingly focused on the domestic and international socialist movement. Starting in December 1918, MA produced special “Worldview issues” containing solely political articles, pictures and manifestos. Kassák was initially positive about the 1918 Budapest “Aster Revolution", leading to the foundation of the First Hungarian Republic, but quickly became disappointed at what he saw as the inadequacies of comte 22 Mózes Kahána, August Stramm és a német expressionizmus [August Stramm and German Expressionism], MA, 4/2., 1919, 23-24. Iván Hevesy, Túl az impresszionizmuson [Beyond impressionism], MA, 4/3., 1919, 31-34. 23 Iván Hevesy, Az uj művészeti törekvések Magyarországon [New schools of art in Hungary], MA, 4/3., 1919, 39-40. 24 Lajos Kassák, Aktivizmus [Activism], MA, 4/4., 1919, 46-51. English translation (excerpts) in Timothy O. Benson-Éva Forgács (eds.), Between Worlds, op. cit., 219-225. 81
