Kassák - Bildarchitektur 1923/1966 Mappe Carl Laszlo

LAJOS KASSÁK - IMAGE ARCHITECTURE

In the auction there is a very rare and excellently preserved linocut by Lajos Kassák from the Panderma Map Edition by Carl Laszlo. The single linocut (of originally 10 linocuts) is signed on paper (25 cm x 19 cm) below the motif with the artist’s stamp. The edition appeared with 100 or 150 copies (GA 120 ex.) in the Panderma Verlag Carl Laszlo, Basel. The numbering was on the original portfolio, which is no longer present. It is illustrated here exemplarily as an example, but not part of the auction. The linocut was purchased by the seller from the estate of Carl Laszlo. Further individual sheets from the portfolio are offered in parallel.

It has never been framed. There are minor edge defects consistent with age and occasional light impressions as storage traces on the print, which is over 50 years old.

The motif originates from 1924 and was reissued in 1966 in the only Kassák edition signed with a “artist’s stamp.” It appeared shortly before his death (in Budapest 1967). Currently, two sheets from the portfolio were exhibited at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem. A complete portfolio is located in the Kassák Museum Budapest.

With the support of Vasarely, exhibitions took place in 1960 and 1963 at Galerie René Denise in Paris. Vasarely introduced Kassák there to the art enthusiast and publisher Carl Laszlo, who, initially with illegally smuggled signatures on stickers from Hungary, published the first portfolio with 10 linocuts in Switzerland in a edition of 100 in 1964, as the Hungarian socialist government did not allow production. In 1965 the portfolio appeared again, supplemented with a color screen print. And a year before Kassák’s death, Laszlo issued the last portfolio with 10 linocuts, from which the sheet in the auction originates.

Kassák signed here for the first time with his artist’s stamp, which presumably happened due to age. Thus these linocuts are actually the last and only (!) sheets of an edition Kassák signed with a stamp. This fact is extremely important for the valuation, because after his death the stamp was no longer used.

BIOGRAPHIES
Lajos Kassák (March 21, 1887 – July 22, 1967) was a Hungarian poet, writer, painter, typographer, sculptor, essayist, editor, avant-garde theorist, and occasional translator.
He is considered the “primus inter pares” (Carl Laszlo 1966) of significant art styles of European modernism (Constructivism, Futurism, Bauhaus, De Stijl, Abstraction-Création).

Carl Laszlo/Edition Panderma: Carl Laszlo (Hungarian: László Károly; born July 16, 1923 in Pécs; died November 8, 2013 in Basel) was a Hungarian-Swiss art dealer, collector, psychoanalyst, and author. He is regarded as one of the most important collectors, connoisseurs, and promoters of modern (especially Hungarian) art after 1945.

SOURCES
Kassák Works Catalog Magyar Nemzeti Galéria/Budapest
Kassák Museum Budapest,
home is where my art is – a visit to Carl Laszlo and the (Hungarian) avant-garde (Ferenc Kréti 2025),
Hungarian Avant-Garde, Galerie Kunze, among others.