Page 21 - Studio International - March 1974

Kondor's generation consisted mostly of
graphic artists, and the second, the Csernus
generation, mostly of painters, it was the third
phase which brought about the essential changes.
I hasten to add that these 'generations' have to
be taken flexibly. There are some outstanding
borderline cases; for instance Lakner belongs
to the second generation, but his personality
matured under the impulses of the third.
Janos Major and Miklós Erdély are of the same
age as Kondor, but at the time of the upsurge of
the Kondor generation they were mere isolated
lone experimenters, ahead of their time, and
they reached their present status by a 'jump'
across the above demarcations.
As the generation of the 1960s hoped for the
chance of systematic development and
evolution, so the present young artists need to
expand the characteristically Hungarian
traditions and to further links with
contemporary artistic movements abroad.
These young artists want to secure unconditional
respect and 'restitution' to the avant-gardism of
the 1920s, to Kassák and his group. They have
also discovered the possibilities contained in the
constructive surrealism of the Szentendre art
movement (Vajda, Korniss). As far as
international contemporary trends are concerned
their attention is focused on hard edge, on
minimal art, on the various realisms - from pop
to photo-realism - and to conceptual art.
All this clearly reveals that when young
Hungarian artists were looking for forbears, they
never wished to pick up the threads of the
established, officially accepted art forms, but
rather those which were forcibly cut and cut
again. The new generations searched for a
point of departure which was only partly
stylistic in nature. Of course, they had to learn
their profession from somewhere and they could
not use theAcademy for this purpose. What they
really needed was an intellectual point of
departure : they were drawn by any example
which could be seen as parallel to their own
existential problems, and also to the kind of László Lakner Victor Vasarely was born in Budapest
Photomontage
progressivity that manifests itself both in art Op Art was not
forms and in many cases also in a precisely of today stems not only from those intentions Theodore Herzl, the father of Zionism, was
outlined social programme. This generation that suit our everyday life and of which they born in Budapest
has been forced into a tighter grouping by their became organic parts, but also from a desperate Zionism was not
position in Hungarian public life. effort to warn : it is not enough to enlarge our there were no isms born in Budapest or Hungary
The way these young artists selected some of material, technological and ecological demands, Bela Bartok was born in Hungary and died in
their examples and consequently their ideas, is we have to increase out intellectual demands as New York
typical of East European development. They well, we have to shape ourselves not only Conceptual Art was born in New York and now
know this full well; and some face it as a positive outwardly but also inwardly.' comes to Hungary
factor, others consider it with irony, judging it Their concern emphasizes geometrical many good men were born in Hungary to die
a disadvantage. They feel that it is necessary to abstract art, but also stresses the ethical values abroad
define themselves, to clarify the place and of the forms as well as the pure formal values, many fine ideals were born abroad and come to die
function of every work of art they create. This and does this with more poignancy than in Budapest
is the urge I referred to when I cited Pauer's comparable abstract artists in the West. Budapest is the necropolis of an ideal.
PSEUDO thesis at the beginning. In János Major provides us with an example of This leads one to consider the abstract
whatever form it appears, this is characteristic of how to deal with the 'East European- artists within the third generation. While Fajó
the entire generation. Janos Fajó and Imre Bak, Hungarian' problem. He photographed the and Bak feel a need to be a conscious part of the
two artists who built their hard-edge art tombstone of a person called Lajos Kubista East European tradition, there are others who
following the Kassák tradition, declared that (Kubista —Cubist) and adds to it the following do not feel this and their art lies beyond
they consider geometry an essentially East text: such programmes, but eventually circumstances
European element. Referring to the functions of I was born in Budapest define their place. For instance, Ilona Keserü
art, Bak says : 'free energy of the actual fine art Cubism was not and Támas Hencze. Keserü learnt a lot from a
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