Theo van Doesburg and Hungary's Avant-Garde

Eleanor Vance · 2026-07-02

This article digs deep into a fascinating slice of art history. It explores the connection between Theo van Doesburg, the Dutch firebrand behind the magazine *De Stijl* (The Style), and a group of Hungarian avant-garde artists from the magazine *Ma* (Today). We're talking about names like Lajos Kassák, Sándor Bortnyik, László Moholy-Nagy, and László Péri. This all happened in the first half of the 1920s, a wild time for art in Europe. ### A Network of Radical Ideas Think of it like this. You have two different groups, miles apart, but they're both trying to tear down the old rules of art. Van Doesburg was the big personality in the Netherlands. His magazine, *De Stijl*, pushed for pure abstraction and simplicity. Meanwhile, in Hungary, Kassák and his crew were doing something similar with *Ma*. They were all rebels with a cause. The real magic comes from the archives. I dug into the personal papers of both Kassák and Van Doesburg. The Kassák Museum in Budapest holds one set. The RKD – Netherlands Institute for Art History in The Hague holds the other. These letters and notes show how these artists actually worked together. It wasn't just a vague influence. They wrote to each other, swapped ideas, and even planned joint projects. ### Key People Who Made It Happen Let's break down the main players. It helps to see who was who. - **Theo van Doesburg:** The Dutch mastermind. He was an artist, writer, and publisher. He wanted to create a universal visual language. - **Lajos Kassák:** The Hungarian leader. He was a poet and painter who ran *Ma*. He was the backbone of the Hungarian scene. - **Sándor Bortnyik:** A student of the famous Bauhaus school. He brought Bauhaus ideas back to Hungary. - **László Moholy-Nagy:** You might know him from his later work at the Bauhaus in America. He started his career in this Hungarian circle. - **László Péri:** A sculptor who worked with concrete and abstract forms. His work was all about geometry. These guys didn't just copy each other. They argued, debated, and pushed each other forward. Van Doesburg was a bit of a bully sometimes. He had strong opinions. But Kassák held his own. The tension between them actually sparked better work. ### What the Archives Reveal The archival research here is the heart of the story. It shows how fragile these networks were. A single letter could change an artist's entire direction. For example, Van Doesburg's letters to Bortnyik are full of sketches and notes. You can see ideas evolving in real time. > "Art is not a mirror to reflect the world, but a hammer with which to shape it." – An echo of the avant-garde spirit. One cool detail: Van Doesburg tried to get Hungarian artists to publish in *De Stijl*. Some did, some didn't. The politics of who got to be in which magazine was a big deal. It was like a club, and the door was only open to certain people. ### Why This Matters Now This might seem like a small story. But it's actually a huge window into how modern art spread across Europe. The 1920s were a time of borders and nationalities. Yet these artists created a borderless world of ideas. They were the original global network, just with stamps and paper instead of the internet. For anyone studying art history, this is a goldmine. It shows that the avant-garde wasn't just a French or German thing. It was a truly international movement. And the connections between artists like Van Doesburg and the Hungarians prove that great art is always a conversation, not a monologue.