Thoughts on Central and Eastern European Modernism
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10. Back in Budapest Introduction Mihály Munkácsy, Endre Ady, Hungarian Symbolism, and the City at the Danube ................................................................................................... 399 11. The “Jewish Question” – and the National One Preliminary Conclusions ................................................................................. 457 Essentially this book encompasses questions about nationalism, syntheticism and Bibliography .................................................................................................... 517 messianism in Eastern Central Euopean Modernism and Avant-Gardism around the turn of the last century. It ends with discussing the so-called “Jewish ques- tion” and the impact of 19th century nationalism. Cross your heart. Are we not all tarred with the same brush? How much do we actually know of the visual arts – and literature – of Central and Eastern Europe? Who were Lajos Kassák and Ljubomir Micić? Who was Witkacy, or Karel Teige? What did Jacek Malczewski and Jan Matejko do in Kraków? August Strindberg´s most significant rival, the “Satanist” Stanisław Przybyszewski – did he really murder his mistress while one of his most ardent disciples shot his wife Dagny Juel, the famous Norwegian artist Edvard Munch´s beloved? Who were in charge of the “subtropical soirée organized by white Negroes” in Warsaw immediately after World War I? Did Sarah Bernhard really find the Czech painter Alfons Mu- cha in an Hungarian gypsy camp? Why did Jaroslav Hašek work as a communist agitator in Samara in the Soviet Union before he was appointed commissar and chairman of the fifth Soviet army only to write his world-famous book about the brave soldier Švejk in a small godforsaken Czech village in total loneliness and gravely ill as a compulsive drinker? And who was the “barbarogenius” in Bel- grade who wished to “balkanize” the whole of Europe? Most of our common textbooks in the history of art and literature are, like most of more qualified studies, expressions of an almost massive Western Euro- pean ethno-centrism regarding the region of Central and Eastern Europe at the turn of the last century. It is true, names like Alfons Mucha, František Kupka, and László Moholy-Nagy are mentioned now and then in the textbooks on art history, but nevertheless these artists are mentioned almost without exception as participating in Western European formations without ever being linked to their own biographical or cultural-historical points of departure. In the history of literature things are slightly better off as Franz Kafka and Jaroslav Hašek, among a few others, are at least credited with a few lines telling of the specific context out of which their literature emerged. But at the same time there are at- tempts to “de-Judaize” Kafka, thereby lifting his literature to a supposedly more universal level “liberated” from the “annoying” complications of the Central and 8 9 Eastern European Jewish discourse.1 It is true that the art and exhibition hall of the Federal Republic of Germany in Bonn organized in 1994 a gigantic exhibi- tion covering the century´s Central and Eastern European artistic Avant-Garde, at the same time the organizers also issued an exhibition catalog of four volumes edited by Ryszard Stanisławski and Christoph Brockhaus,2 but nevertheless this in every respect epoch-making achievement was restricted by the fact that the focus was directed toward only the specifically vanguard movements in the same way as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art did eight years later when it was organizing an equally impressive traveling exhibition of the Central European Avant-Garde movements covering the years of 1910-1930, with an exceptionally valuable catalog edited by Timothy O. Benson.3 The catalog was completed by an equally valuable source book edited by Benson together with Éva Forgács containing other contributions and almost every essential text and manifesto, and other contributions produced by the different Avant-Gardists and vanguard groups active in cities such as Warsaw and Łódź, Poznań and Prague, Kraków and Budapest, Vienna, Ljubljana, Zagreb, Belgrade, and Bucharest, besides cities such as Berlin, Weimar, and Dessau.4 One more or less “wall-to-wall” survey of Eastern Central European modern art “from the Baltic to the Balkans” during the period of 1890-1939 is the Mod- ern Art in Eastern Europe, published in 1999 and written by the American art historian Steven Mansbach.5 However, the book is a fairly conventional survey of art history not paying much attention to those complications that more inter- disciplinary and at the same time specifically ideo-historical approaches might bring forth. At the same time, Mansbach treats the subject more or less dutifully and chronologically from country to country seemingly without ever seriously re- flecting upon the fact that he actually creates the impression of the artistic idioms being restricted to territories of the national states of today, when in fact most of the currents in question up to the end of World War I took place and were for- 1 See for instance Ekbom, Torsten: Den osynliga domstolen. En bok om Franz Kafka. Stock- holm: Natur och kultur, 2004. 2 Stanisławski, Ryszard – Brockhaus, Christoph (Hrsg): Europa, Europa. Das Jahrhundert der Avantgarde in Mittel- und Osteuropa. Band 1-4 Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesre- publik Deutschland Bonn, 27. Mai – 16. Oktober 1994. Bonn: Stiftung Kunst und Kultur des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen, 1994. 3 Benson, Timothy O. (ed.): central european avant-gardes: exchange and transformation, 1910- 1930. Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Los Angeles – Cambridge – London: The MIT Press, 2002. 4 Benson, Timothy O. – Forgács, Éva (ed.): between worlds: a sourcebook of central european avant-gardes, 1910-1930. Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Los Angeles – Cambridge – London: The MIT Press, 2002. 5 Mansbach, S. A.: Modern Art in Eastern Europe: From the Baltic to the Balkans, ca. 1890- 1939. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. 10 Eastern European Jewish discourse.1 It is true that the art and exhibition hall of mulated within the Tsarist, Habsburg and Ottoman empires. The fact that art and the Federal Republic of Germany in Bonn organized in 1994 a gigantic exhibi- literature often were interwoven with each other in a mutual dependence, includ- tion covering the century´s Central and Eastern European artistic Avant-Garde, ing also various both political and philosophical considerations, is also more or at the same time the organizers also issued an exhibition catalog of four volumes less totally neglected by Mansbach, with the exceptions of those passages where edited by Ryszard Stanisławski and Christoph Brockhaus,2 but nevertheless this these mutual relationships are too obvious to be left without proper attention. in every respect epoch-making achievement was restricted by the fact that the This applies not to the hitherto best survey, the art historian Elizabeth Clegg´s focus was directed toward only the specifically vanguard movements in the same big Art, Design and Architecture in Central Europe 1890-1920,6 an extraordinary way as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art did eight years later when it was work of scholarship. In this wide-ranging account concentrated on the Habsburg organizing an equally impressive traveling exhibition of the Central European empire and its last decades, Clegg integrates crucial political and cultural devel- Avant-Garde movements covering the years of 1910-1930, with an exceptionally opments, embracing all the visual arts. However, her approach of pointing at the valuable catalog edited by Timothy O. Benson.3 The catalog was completed by empire as a political and cultural entity results in not paying particular attention an equally valuable source book edited by Benson together with Éva Forgács to the national movements in the individual countries. Thus, she is able to explain containing other contributions and almost every essential text and manifesto, that, for instance, the coincidence of preparations for the Imperial Jubilee of 1898, and other contributions produced by the different Avant-Gardists and vanguard marking the fiftieth anniversary of the accession of Franz Joseph, with those for groups active in cities such as Warsaw and Łódź, Poznań and Prague, Kraków the Paris exhibition of 1900 was, in all probability, the single most important and Budapest, Vienna, Ljubljana, Zagreb, Belgrade, and Bucharest, besides cities factor accounting for the concentration of Secessionist exhibiting débuts in 1897- such as Berlin, Weimar, and Dessau.4 1898.7 Additionally the internationalism and the interest in current developments One more or less “wall-to-wall” survey of Eastern Central European modern in Paris, Moscow, and Berlin expressed by the first true representatives of the art “from the Baltic to the Balkans” during the period of 1890-1939 is the Mod- Avant-Garde8 does not automatically need to involve the disposing of the underly- ern Art in Eastern Europe, published in 1999 and written by the American art ing nationalist ideological foundation, as we shall see. historian Steven Mansbach.5 However, the book is a fairly conventional survey Clegg does not acknowledge either the broad presence of historically retro- of art history not paying much attention to those complications that more inter- spective currents in all of the crown lands of the empire towards the end of the disciplinary and at the same time specifically ideo-historical