Lajos Kassák (Hungarian, 1887–1967)

Flyer: Mentor: Modern könyvek, modern grafika
(Mentor: Modern Books, Modern Graphics), 1926
Lithograph, 9 13/16 x 7 3/8” (24.9 x 18.7 cm)

This advertisement for the Mentor Bookstore in Budapest was reproduced in the journal Munka during its first year (1928), nos. 1–6.

Lajos Kassák (1887–1967) was among the key impresarios of the interwar European avant-garde. He promoted revolutionary politics and aesthetics through his writing, graphics, activism, publishing, and editorial roles with the periodicals A Tett (Action), MA (Today), Dokumentum (Document), and Munka (Work). Kassák’s Buch neuer Künstler (Book of New Artists), co-edited in 1922 with Laszló Moholy-Nagy, was one of the avant-garde’s first synthetic assessments of its own accomplishments. But among his publishing efforts it was undoubtedly Kassák’s periodical MA (Today) that had the greatest impact—particularly between 1921 and 1925—as a central transmitter of what scholar Juliet Kinchin has called “politically-inflected Constructivism” in Europe.

Mentor Bookshop, 17 Andrássy Street, Budapest, June 1926.
Window design by Béla Kádár. Photograph by Árpád Szélpál. Kassák Muzeum, Budapest

Periodical: MA. Aktivista Folyóirat (Today. Activist Journal). Budapest (1916–1919) and Vienna (1920–1925). Lajos Kassák and Béla Uitz, eds.

Vol. VI, no. 8 (Vienna; August 1, 1921). Cover design by Lajos Kassák
Vol. VII, no. 1 (Vienna; November 15, 1921). Cover design by Lajos Kassák

Vol. VII, no. 2 (Vienna; January 1, 1922). Cover design by Lajos Kassák

Vol. IX, no. 2 (Vienna; November 15, 1923)
Vol. IX, no. 5 (Vienna; April 15, 1924). Cover design by Lajos Kassák

Vol. IX, no. 3-4 (Vienna; February 20, 1924)
Vol. IX, nos. 8-9 (Vienna; September 15, 1924). Music and Theater Number

Book: Lajos Kassák, Tragédiás figurák: regény (Tragic Figures: A Novel).
Cover design and illustration by Sándor Bortnyik
Budapest: MA Folyóirat Kiadása, 1919
Linocut, 8 3/8 x 5 1/4” (21 x 13 cm)

L: Book: Lajos Kassák, Novellás-könyv. Válogatott novellák, 1911–1919
(A Book of Short Stories. Selected Short Stories, 1911–1919).
Cover design by Sándor Bortnyik
Vienna: Ban-Verlag, 1921
Letterpress, 9 1/2 x 6 3/8" (24 x 16 cm)

R: Book: Lajos Kassák, Világanyám. Versek 1914–1921
(The World, My Mother. Poems, 1914–1921).
Cover design by Sándor Bortnyik

Vienna: Ban-Verlag, 1921

Letterpress, 9 1/2 x 6 3/8" (24 x 16 cm)

L: Book: Lajos Kassák, MA Buch: Gedichte (MA Book: Poems).
Translated to German and with a foreword by Andreas Gáspár
Berlin: Verlag der Sturm, 1923
Linocut, hand-colored, 9 3/8 x 6 3/16" (23.5 x 15.5 cm) 

R: Book: János Mácza, Teljes szinpad. Tanulmány, 1919–1921
(Total Stage: A Study, 1919–1921).
Cover design by Lajos Kassák

Vienna: MA, 1921

Linocut, 10 7/8 x 8 1/2" (27.5 x 21.5 cm)

L: Book: Lajos Kassák, Tisztaság Könyve (The Book of Purity). Typography by Lajos Kassák
Budapest: Horizont Kiadás and Vienna: Fischer Verlag, 1926
Letterpress, 9 5/8 x 6 3/4” (24.5 x 17 cm) 

R: Book: Déry Tibor, Énekelnek és meghalnak (They Sing and Die).
Cover design by Lajos Kassák

Bekescsaba: Genius Kiadás, 1928

Lithograph, 9 3/4 x 7 1/8" (24.5 x 18 cm)

Periodical: Munka (Work). Budapest, September 1928–Summer 1939. Lajos Kassák, ed.

Year 1, no. 1 (September 1928); no. 2 (October 1928); no. 3 (November 1928); no. 4 (January 1929); no. 5 (February 1929); no. 6 (March 1929); no. 7 (May 1929); no. 8 (June 1929); no. 9 (September 1929); no. 10 (November 1929)

Year 2, no. 11 (January 1930); no. 12 (February 1930); no. 13 (April 1930)

Kassák with poster for Munka (Work), c. 1929.
Photograph by József Pécsi. Kassák Muzeum, Budapest

June 16, 2026