INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter 6ce, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely afreet reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand comer and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Each original is also photographed in one exposure and is included in reduced form at the back of the book. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Ifigher quality 6” x 9” black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. UMI A Bell & Howell Infonnation Compaoy 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor MI 48106-1346 USA 313/761-4700 800/521-0600 MODERNISM BETWEEN EAST AND WEST: THE HUNGARIAN JOURNAL MA (1916-1925) AND THE INTERNATIONAL AVANT-GARDE DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Marian Mazzone, B.A., M.A. ***** THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY 1997 Dissertation Committee: Approved by Dr. Myroslava M. Mudrak, Adviser Dr. Julia P. Andrews Advisey Dr. Stephen Melville Department of History of Art UMI Number: 9731676 Copyright 1997 by Mazzone, Marian All rights reserved. UMI Microform 9731676 Copyright 1997, by UMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 Copyright Text by Marian Mazzone 1997 ABSTRACT The Hungarian journal Mâ [Today] (Budapest 1916-1919; Vienna 1920-1925), was Eastern Europe's most visible and recognized participant in international avant-garde artistic culture in early 20th century Europe. This study evaluates the active role of Mâ as crafted by its editor Lajos Kassak (1887-1967), analyzing its reception of contemporary art and theory, and its critical response to the primary issues of avant-garde culture. This study questions the prevailing methods of modem art history, founded on the study of Western European art, and predicated on creating singular styhsdc classifications and narratives which proceed from one formal style to the next. Such art history is unable to incorporate the art of Ma. due to the different pohtical and social context, reception processes and synthesizing tendencies of Eastern European avant-garde movements. The Ma group's vision of avant-garde art was forged during the massive social and political changes occurring in Eastern Europe during the era of World War 1. They created art with the goal of improving their nation, and were first challenged to integrate art into political life during Hungary's 1919 Communist regime. When that political experiment failed. Ma relocated to Vienna, and became a platform from which to participate in the ideological debates of international avant-garde art. Divided over the relationship between poUtics and art, and geographically and culturally separated from the 11 primary centers of Western European and Russian art activity, these Hungarians received and processed avant-garde art in a way different than at the center. Through their response to the Congress of Progressive Artists via De StiiT. their interpretation of Expressionism, Futurism and Cubism, and their simultaneous experimentation with Dada and Constructivism in typography and art, Mâ is a document of the reception and synthesizing processes of this Hungarian group. This study culminates in an analysis of the Hungarian differentiation between International and Russian Constructivism, and Kassak's development of the Constructivist theory Képarchitektura [Picture- architecture]. Finally, Ma is reintegrated into the avant-garde of Eastern Europe, demonstrating its artistic and ideological connections with others operating in a position on the continent between East and West. Ill ACKNOWLEDGMENTS One does not complete a project of this scale and complexity without the assistance of a number of individuals and organizations, which I will take the opportunity to thank here. For inspiring, and more importantly sustaining my interest in and enthusiasm for Eastern European art, I would like to thank my advisor Myroslava M. Mudrak. For funding the relevant language study and research needed for this topic there are a number of organizations which were generous and supportive: The Ohio State University Center for Slavic and East European Studies, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the East European Studies division of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. My research abroad was variously supported by the Soros Foundation, pARTners for the Arts, and an Alumni Research Award from the Graduate School of The Ohio State University. In Eastern Europe my debt is substantial. Many thanks to Dr. Ferenc Csaplar of the Kassak Museum and Archive, who generously shared all the resources of that institution, and always took the time to answer my questions. Thanks also to Dr. Julia Szabo, of the Institute of Art History of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, who took an interest in my work from our first meeting at the Central European University in Prague, and was supportive of an American straying into unfamiliar territory. In Romania deep appreciation is due Dr. Gheorghe Vida, who made available to me the resources of the Institute iv of Art History, and Dr. loana Vlasiu, for arranging a wonderful visit to the S a^ Pana family collection in Bucharest. Their hospitality and generosity were inspiring. I would also like to express my gratitude to Waldemar Mattis- Teutsch, who graciously welcomed me into his home in Brasov, and shared the family collection of Mattis-Teutsch material. A special thank you to Katalin Timâr in Budapest and Lucian Nan in Bucharest—for their hospitality, tour guiding, easing my way through innumerable obstacles, and especially for opening their lives to me and offering their friendship. Finally, appreciation is due to some key individuals here at home. 1 would like to express my gratitude to Eszter Gozon, my long-suffering Hungarian language coach, whose patience and enthusiasm for speaking Hungarian with an American never failed. She gave me courage. Special thanks to my parents, who always have encouraged me and never doubted me, and especially to my husband, Dick, whose patience and willingness to make many personal sacrifices made completion of this study possible. VITA October7 ,1 9 6 3 ............................................. Bom - Hamilton, Ohio 1986 .................................................................Bj\. History, Miami University 1990 .................................................................MA. History of Art, University of Arizona 1990-1996 .....................................................Graduate Teaching Assistant, The Ohio State University 1994 ................................................................. Spring semester at the Central European University, Prague, Czech Republic 1994-95 ........................................................... FLAS Fellowship for Dissertation Research, The Ohio State University Center for Slavic and East European Studies 1996 - present ..............................................Instructor, Columbus College of Art & Design, Columbus, Ohio 1996 - present ..............................................Assistant to Curator of Twentieth Century and Contemporary Art, the Columbus Museum of Art PUBUCATIONS 1. Marian Mazzone, "Hungary and Modem Art History," Riillpiin of the Society of Historians of Fast European and Russian Art and Architecture 1, no. 3 (March, 1996): 8-9. FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: History of Art v i TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract...........................................................................................................................ii Acknowledgments ........................................................................................................iv Vita...................................................................................................................................vi List of Figures ................................................................................................................ ix Chapters: 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................ 1 Notes...................................................................................................................... 9 2. The Budapest Period of Mâ (1915-1919) and Contemporary Hungarian Politics: First Lessons in the Relationship between Politics and Art 10 Notes....................................................................................................................... 19 3. Ma's Reception, Analysis and Synthesis of the