The aesthetics of the periodicalMagyar Műhely

Abstract

The Hungarian Avant-Garde periodical Magyar Műhely has been published in Paris since 1962, from the mid-1960s on with the collaboration of Hungarian emigrants living in Vienna. The paper deals with the periodical (layout, cover design, typography) and with the published contributions (works of art, illustrations, photo documentation on the one side, texts on the other: literature, theoretical essays and documentary material) focusing on their materiality. The process of production as well as of the reception of Magyar Műhely seem to be describable correctly if its diverse media formats (periodical, text, picture, hybrid formats, such as, for example, picture poems) are understood in their materiality. The special variant of the avantgardistic aesthetics embodied in Magyar Műhely, that it provided a platform for experiment and innovation as well as for the “other”, correspond with the fact that it was published by people on the margins for a marginalised, emigrant public. The paper discusses these aesthetic, organizational and political issues focusing on works of geometric art and visual poetry printed in the periodical.