Hungarian Dada: the Missing Link

András Kappanyos

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Chapter 5 Hungarian Dada: the Missing Link

In: Cannibalizing the Canon

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András Kappanyos

András Kappanyos
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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 105–126

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004526747_007

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Abstract

It is a difficult task to locate and demarcate Hungarian Dada. International Dada can be easily defined as a brand, as an artistic style, or as a cultural movement that exceeds the barriers of artistic creation. Neither of these approaches are effective with the Hungarian scene – as well as for other cultures in the Eastern and Central European region – where hardly anyone used the actual Dada brand and the pre-defined channels of political engagement did not allow for the nonchalance of their Western counterparts. The political and cultural scene of the early 1920s was defined by the aftertastes of the lost War and lost revolutions: the general feeling of injured national pride and a strong desire for order. However, somewhat paradoxically, the prerequisites of Dada as an attitude were very much present, probably more so than anywhere else: the lost War, the two fallen revolutions, and the annexation of two-thirds of the country by neighbouring states created a moral vacuum, a zero point of values that turned into a rich substrate for Dada, “the virgin microbe”. The circle of involuntary Dadaists included Lajos Kassák and László Moholy-Nagy, even if only for a few months, before they found their new, Constructivist selves. This short and stormy period made Moholy-Nagy an artist of international stance, it launched Kassák’s career as a visual artist, and it produced the most important piece of his poetic oeuvre, The Horse Dies the Birds Fly Away. The paper tries to locate the motives, channels, and traces of this involuntary Dada within a Central-European perspective.

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Cannibalizing the Canon

Dada Techniques in East-Central Europe

Series: Avant-Garde Critical Studies, Volume: 42 and Avant-Garde Critical Studies, Volume: 42

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004526747

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 16 Jan 2024

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- Literature and Cultural Studies

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Chapter 5 Hungarian Dada: the Missing Link

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Cannibalizing the Canon

Dada Techniques in East-Central Europe

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