Csaplár Ferenc szerk.: Lajos Kassák / The Advertisement and Modern Typography (1999)
Ferenc Csaplár: Kassák the Book and Advertisement Artist
element of the scene: "As the leading figure of modern artistic movements known throughout Europe stripped off hisjacket and got cracking on the shop window in the street, Ernő Osvát [the famous editor of Nyugat] came over from the Korona cafe on the other side of the street, gazed and gazed at the first Constructivist glass window in Hungary, and then said: 'Sir! If anyone wanted to be advertised, he would certainly have had himself photographed in your place." 7 8 Another sign of interest and acknowledgement was that the most important professional forum for the Hungarian printing industry, the bimonthly Magyar Grafika devoted its May-June 1928 issue to introducing the work of Kassák in the art of book design and advertising. The editors thought that the best way to introduce Hungarian readers to the aspirations and achievements of Constructivist typography would be to provide them with illustrations of Kassák's theoretical work and advertising graphics. In order to encourage debate, they published Kassák's essay "On the Road to Elementary Typography", which was an enlarged version of the article "The Advertisement" in Tisztaság könyve. His theses were then illustrated by the journal's cover page designed by Kassák himself and eleven of his advertising graphics in an inset: To Mozi, Dunlop, Ma - Ungarische Gruppe, Tolo Porzellanwaren, Budapest Zoo, Hungária Hírlapnyomda Rt., Déry Tibor ; Énekelnek és meghalnak, Művészfilmkölcsönző Vállalat ( Art Film Rental Company ), Brust Dávid and Nádass József. Of these Tó Mozi appeared in the 1929 annual put out by Commercial Art, the leading British journal for the graphic arts in advertising. The journal hailed it as being among the finest examples of its genre for the previous year, placing it among the images in its Photography in Commercial Art section. 7 9 The cover Kassák had designed for Déry's collection of poetry appeared again in the November 1931 issue of the Danish journal De Grafiske Fag as one of the illustrations for Károly Rosner's piece on the art of book design in Hungary. 8 0 Kassák was a founding member of the Society of Hungarian Book and Advertisement Artists. 8 1 The society founded on 5 May 1928 appeared to the general public with a major exhibit held at the Museum of Applied Arts. Kassák himself displayed some fifty of his works. Since no list of exhibits has come down to us, what of Kassák's material was on display can only be surmised on the basis of photographs taken there and published in Magyar Grafika.* 2 The most conspicuous pieces in the collection were Kassák's large posters designed for Nyugat and Magyar Hírlap. The cover designs for the Hungarian edition of Tristan Tzara's play Gas-Heart and for Pál Forgó's book Új építészet ( The New Architecture), 8 3 as well as some other works unidentifiable from the photograph were displayed in a showcase arranged as though it were a shop window. Its side wall was covered with two large posters and works reproduced in the May-June 1928 issue of Magyar Grafika, small posters advertising the Mentor book shop, Munka and the New Hungarian Novel series, as well as political montages, which had been on display at individual exhibits, and advertisements using photographic montage techniques. The last exhibit on the poster wall was a large poster designed for Virradat (Dawn), a journal edited by young left-wing authors. Kassák's professional standing was evidenced by the fact The programme for Mas Vienna Evening on 8 May 1926, 182x179 mm 79
