Csaplár Ferenc szerk.: Lajos Kassák / The Advertisement and Modern Typography (1999)
Ferenc Csaplár: Kassák the Book and Advertisement Artist
Mannheim; four book covers, a department store brochure, four title pages for journals, six small and two large posters, two post cards and one advertisement box. Of these, covers for Ma - Ungarische Gruppe, which was published in the Bauhausbücher series, and Tisztaság könyve, a brochure entitled Warenhaus A.G., the cover pages of the December 1926 and the March 1927 issues of Dokumentum, posters entitled Tolo Porzellanwaren, Z. Marx Tuchplast and Mentor, as well as a box of sweets are known to us either in printed or photographic form. The cover designs for a novel by Jack London, a publication entitled "Mode", and the magazines Die Technik and Das Licht, posters entitled Ero Perlenhaus, Corvin, M.T.E., Szinházi Élet (The Theatre), and Fischer Simon, as well as some post cards could not yet be traced. According to the registration sheet of the Mannheim Kunsthalle the exhibits were available for sale. Certain advertisement graphics might very well have been added to private or public collections even then. The participation at the Mannheim exhibit may well have prompted Tschichold to reproduce two works by Kassák among the pictorial material illustrating new aspirations in his new book Die neue Typographie, which he published in Berlin in 1928. 7 4 The "relief" from the title page of Tisztaság könyve was meant to illustrate in Tschichold's book that an artist does not imitate nature - he shapes it; the use of colour not always being enough for him, he also fashions the surface of his picture by using wood, metal and paper. The other piece was the cover page of a department store brochure, which had been displayed at Mannheim as well. This advertisement graphic reproduced by Tschichold with the title Typoposter also appeared in the Prague magazine ReD, edited by Karel Teige. 7 5 The programme for Más Vienna Evening on 22 March 1925, 125x135 mm Kassák's first exhibit in Hungary took place in the Mentor book shop in mid-March 1928. Both advertising graphics and pictorial architectures were on display there. No catalogue was prepared for the exhibit, nor has any list of exhibits come down to us. On the basis of reviews in the press, the following posters may have been on display: Magyar Hírlap (Hungarian News), Tolo Porzellanwaren, Mentor, Dunlop, Tó Cinema, Budapest Zoo, and Hungária Hírlapnyomda Rt. Having been on display in the streets and at the exhibit, these probably contributed to the change in the Hungarian appreciation of Constructivism in the second half of the 1920s. The raison detre of the -ism in the fine arts was in doubt even among such progressive authors as Ede Iván, Artúr Elek, and Marius Rabinovszky. They did however acknowledge that, through the Constructivist attitude and idiom, a new, up-to-date style of poster had come into being. 7 6 Rabinovszky wrote the following of Kassák's posters: "They are rather good. So good that serious capitalist ventures have bought, printed and posted them, and seeing them, the public paid heed to their call." After the exhibit, Kassák was commissioned by Pantheon Publishers to design the graphics for the New Hungarian Novel series. He not only designed covers, cases, posters, and advertisements, but also did shop window arrangements for the Mentor book shop. 7 7 The most impressive part of the shop window arrangement, from the evidence of a photograph taken of it, was a large poster by Kassák, whose graphic design or printed copies have not been found to date. The left-hand wall of the shop window was decorated with copies of the smaller poster advertising the series. Recalling the preparation of the shop window, the poet Zoltán Zelk, a contemporary witness, described an interesting 78
