KASSÁK Lajos
Nové Zámky, 1887 – Budapest, 1967

Pictorial Architecture V, after 1924

Lajos Kassák is regarded as the classic archetype of the avant-garde artist. Thanks to the work of artists involved in the activist movement, there was a radical modernisation in the mindset of Hungarian visual art, which raised it to the same level as the progressive European trends. Forced into exile in Vienna, Kassák was once again able to publish the previously banned MA periodical, which was one of the most sophisticated art journals around, even by international standards.
In the 1920s he made constructivist works, which he called “pictorial architecture”. He rejected the conventional pictorial devices of painting. Instead of a sensual evocation of nature, he strove towards the creation of a “picture-object” that would have the same value as reality. His compositions were visual models for the construction of a new world order. The geometric profiles aligned like building blocks, the colour elements arranged into a state of equilibrium, and the dynamic ensemble of interlinked surfaces and linear structures are all the product of the pure intellectualism of a rational construction.