Lajos Szabó

Lajos Szabó

Lajos Szabó (born July 1, 1902 in Budapest , † October 21, 1967 in Düsseldorf ) was a Hungarian philosopher and one of the founders of the Budapest Dialogic School.                              

Life

In 1919 he was expelled from the vocational school. In the early twenties he took part in the illegal communist movement for a few months. In the first half of the twenties he worked as a bookseller assistant in Budapest and Vienna. Between 1928 and 1930 he became a member of Lajos Kassák's group . He wrote two articles for Munka magazine . At this time he met Karl Korsch. In 1930 he was expelled from the Munka circle along with numerous other members. They founded the Hungarian opposition movement. This illegal, left-wing anti-capitalist and anti-Bolshevik movement was also linked to Karl Korsch's uncompromising Marxism. Besides Lajos Szabó, Pál Justus, Pál Partos and Andor Szirtes, the most important personalities of this movement were. In 1930 Lajos met Szabó Béla Tábor, with whom he had a close working relationship until the end of his life. In the period from 1931 to 1932 he spent a few months in Berlin and Frankfurt twice. In Frankfurt he studied at the Institute for Social Research . In 1933 and 1934 he went on a study trip to Vienna and Paris.

Lajos Vajda: Montage with Lajos Szabó, 1930–33, pastel and photo collage on cardboard, 49.6 cm × 54.6 cm

In 1936 he and Béla Tábor wrote a book entitled Vádirat a szellem ellen ( Indictment against the Spirit). In 1937 the first issue of A hit logikája - Teocentrikus logika (The Logic of Faith - A Theocentric Logic) was published. The second issue of this work was published long after his death. He wrote several studies: Megjegyzések a marxizmus kritikájához (Remarks on the criticism of Marxism), A Tudományos szocializmus bírálatához (For a critique of scientific socialism) A mammonizmus természetrajzához (On the Nature of Mammon) Adalékok a halmazelmélet kérdéseihez (contributions to the issues of Set theory), Nietzsche . They did not appear in print until after his death. An important work by Lajos Szabó is Biblia és romantika (The Bible and Romanticism), which was written on the basis of a lecture given in 1941.

In 1938 he married Magda Pallós, who died in 1946. In 1940 he was called up for labor service, but after a few weeks he was discharged from the army for tuberculosis. From March onwards, he spent a few months in the hospital. The seriously ill painter Lajos Vajda was treated in the same ward of the hospital . In the spring of 1944 he was deported to Auschwitz. He survived and returned to Hungary in late January 1945.

Lajos Szabó and Béla Tábor laid the foundation stone of the Budapest Dialogic School in the post-war years. During these years a very close collaboration developed between them and the essayist, Béla Hamvas and the art historian Lajos Fülep. With Béla Hamvas they founded a working group devoted to philosophical questions at the end of 1945. Their regular talks came to be known as the “Thursday Talks”. Besides them, the wife of Béla Tábor, Stefánia Mándy, and the wife of Béla Hamvas, Katalin Kemény, also took part in these conversations. Lajos Szabó published two studies in 1946: Irodalom és rémület (literature and horror) and Művészet és vallás (art and religion). Both studies appeared in the literary magazine Mouseion .

In the period between 1946 and 1948 he gave seminar lectures for young intellectuals. In his lectures he dealt with questions of value theory and value psychology, aiming for a synthesis of the pre-philosophical situation (e.g. the Indian tradition and the pre-Socratics) and the post-philosophical situation in the criticism of philosophy, art and religion the great thinkers of the invisible 19th century ( Kierkegaard , Fjodor Michailowitsch Dostojewski and Friedrich Nietzsche ) can be found.

Most closely, however, Lajos Szabó was connected to the dialogue philosophy of Ferdinand Ebner , Franz Rosenzweig and Martin Buber , and following in their footsteps he called himself a philosopher of language. At the beginning of his value theory lectures, he clearly stated that he is primarily based on the biblicism of Ferdinand Ebner, and is of the opinion that he finds this approach “authoritatively” unassailable, established and most extensive, even if he is of the opinion that this biblicism at some points, mainly with regard to questions of the evaluation of mathematics and art, needs to be thought further or even criticized.

The most active participants in the seminar lectures were Attila Kotányi and György Kunszt, who also recorded these lectures. They summarized the topics of the lectures as follows: The theory of values ​​and signs, economics, existentialism, criticism of set theory, the concept of language mathematics. The recorded text of these lectures was only allowed to appear after 1990.

Szabó took an active part in the events of the Európai Iskola (European School), which was a neo-avant-garde group of artists and writers. During the period of the Stalinist dictatorship, close relationships arose between the members of the underground movement of the Budapest School and the likewise banned avant-garde artists, especially the members of the European School. From the mid-fifties, Lajos Szabó became a calligrapher. From 1954 he created his first abstract calligraphy, his "graphic meditations". In 1956 he left Hungary with his wife. He stayed in Vienna until the end of 1957 and then in Brussels until the end of 1961. In 1960 he went on a tour of Germany and his calligraphy was shown in exhibitions in Munich, Dortmund, Hamburg and Hagen. In 1962 he settled in Düsseldorf.

In 1966 he had an exhibition in Paris. Lajos Szabó took the name AO as a pseudonym , which on the one hand could be regarded as an abbreviation of Anti-Organization, on the other hand A and O were the vowels of his first and last name. For a while he signed his drawings with AO, but later AO became a recurring motif.

Lajos Szabó died on October 21, 1967 in Düsseldorf. His grave is in the city's Jewish cemetery .

The work of Lajos Szabó

As a philosopher

The indictment against the ghost has three parts. The first part of the work deals with the narrowing and fragmentation of the mind, which mainly takes place in the humanities. In this process language perishes as a sensible means of dialogue. The mind renounces its leadership role and pursues all too modest goals. This crisis can only be overcome if everyone who devotes his energies to research perceives all other attempts at solving an investigated problem as a personal question addressed directly to him. Spirit officials must be clear about their own traits, and also know that not only should the masses be influenced, but Spirit officials should learn from the masses.

The second part of the work deals with practice and theory and the mind. The authors state that the mind has withdrawn into theory, allowing practice to take over the theory.

The third part of the work deals with "the geography of the mind". The problem with Marxism, the authors write, is that the goal of this movement, i. H. the emergence of a new person is incompatible with the dictatorial methods by which this goal is to be achieved. With regard to sociology, positivism and psychoanalysis, it is always shown that the respective goals of these intellectual currents cannot be reconciled with the respective methods.

The authors, whose masters are the representatives of the philosophy of dialogue, claim that the main cause of the crisis is the helplessness of the spirit. Béla Hamvas in his masterful criticism of this work, which in his opinion should actually be understood as an anthropological work, points out that "the real history of man is his becoming God. (...) To be human means to have a fate for which the possibility of becoming God is always open, despite all errors and mistakes. " This book review by Béla Hamvas, which was not published at the time of its writing because the editor was of the opinion that the reviewer wrote too highly of this work, ends with the very topical and poetic sentence: "Life is getting more and more difficult for people because he always knows more. And anyone who knows a lot and doesn't live accordingly, says Jan van Ruysbroek, is lost. "

As a calligrapher

Speculative graphic art played an extremely important role in the last phase of his life. “Szabó's graphic art genre is abstract calligraphy. (…) When calligraphy is replaced by abstract calligraphy, the letters are replaced by characters, by the image. It takes courage for religious people to take this step. Lajos Szabó recognized that the signs inspired by the letters or the signs received in exchange for them are identical with the presence of the soul. "

1954 Lajos Szabó made his first calligraphy. “The abstract line of the resulting works does not“ abstract from anything ”, so it is not the abstract reflection of an original, but rather it is the primary reality. It is the sign, the image and the breakthrough of the growing soul, it is "non-representational" in the sense of Malevich, it is an original, inner spiritual reality, the carrier of which is merely the line. The material elements are the traces that the pencil or pen leave on the sheet of paper. "

Invitation card, 1962, Hagen

A significant number of the works created before emigration in 1956 were exhibited in 1980 in the Budapest Young Artists Club. (The curators of the exhibition were Dániel Bíró and Botond Kocsis.)

In December 1957, Lajos Szabó and Lajos Vajda, Endre Bálint, Attila Kotányi and Lyubomir Szabó presented their works to the public in the Brussels Palais Des Beaux Arts . The calligraphies are kept in numerous museums: Musée Royal , Brussels; Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum , Rotterdam; Museum Kunstpalast , Düsseldorf; State Art Collection, Stuttgart; Haubrich Collection in the Museum Ludwig , Cologne; Municipal Art Museum, Duisburg; Lehmbruck Museum Foundation - Center for International Sculpture, Duisburg; Kunstmuseum Bochum art collection . The Berlin Calligraphy Collection , which is located in the archive of the Academy of the Arts , contains a total of 414 calligraphies that were still made in Budapest.

Exhibitions

• 1955 Budapest, studio exhibition from the first calligraphy
• 1956 Budapest, studio exhibition
• 1957 Brussels, Palais des Beaux Arts : Peintres Hongrois, Lajos Vajda, Lajos Szabó, André Bálint, Attila Kotányi, Lyubomir Szabó
• 1959 Brussels, Palais des Beaux Arts
• 1960 Brussels, Ptah Gallery: Louis Szabo
• 1960 Hamburg, House of Encounters
• 1960 Dortmund, Fritz-Henßler-Haus
• 1960 Berlin, Congress Hall
• 1961 Düsseldorf, Galerie Strake
• 1962 Hagen, Karl-Ernst-Osthaus-Museum : Louis Szabo, Drawing Meditations-Physiognomic Studies
• 1980 Budapest, Young Artists Club: Lajos Szabó, presentation and selection from the calligraphy produced between 1954 and 1956
• 1994 Pannonhalma, main abbey
• 1997 Budapest, Ernst Múzeum : The Speculative Graphic Image Fonts by Lajos Szabó (1902-1967)
• 1998 Düsseldorf, Stadtmuseum : The speculative graphic typefaces by Lajos Szabó (1902-1967)
• 2011 Eger , Hungary, Ars Geometrica Galéria
• 2011 Budapest, 2B Galéria, Pictures of Soul Presence, 1957-1967

Works by Lajos Szabó

• with Béla Tábor: Vádirat a szellen ellen (Indictment against the Spirit), first edition, Budapest, Az idő Könyvei, 1936
• with Béla Tábor: Vádirat a szellen ellen (Indictment against the Spirit), Budapest, Comitatus, 1991
• A hit logikája - Teocentrikus logika (The Logic of Belief - Theocentric Logic), Az Idő Könyvei, Budapest, 1937
• Szemináriumi előadások 1946-1950 (The seminar lectures by Lajos Szabó), Közr .: Kotányi Attila, Kunszt György, (edited by. Attila Kotányi, György Kunszt), Budapest, Typotex, 1997
• Tény és titok - összegyűjtött írások és előadások (fact and secret - collected writings and lectures), Szerk: Kotányi Attila-Kunszt György-Kőszegi Lajos (editor's note by Attila Kotányi, György Kotiószt - Lajante Kőszószt): Medium Veszprém, 1999
• Megjegyzések a marxizmus kritikájához (Comments on the Critique of Marxism), 1934
• Biblia és romantika (The Bible and Romanticism),
• A mammonizmus természetrajzához (On the nature of Mommonism),
• Trinitárius világfelfogás (The Trinitarian Worldview),
• Irodalom és rémület, (Literature and Terror), Diárium, 1946, Pannon Panteon Könyvsorozat, Medium Kiadó, Veszprém, 1999
• Művészet és vallás, (Art and Religion), Mouseion, 1946. Pannon Panteon Könyvsorozat, Medium Kiadó, Veszprém, 1999

Secondary literature

• EIKÓN: A képíró Szabó Lajos spekulatív grafikái - The speculative graphic typefaces by Lajos Szabó (magyar-német), Ernst Múzeum, Budapest, 1997 (Szerk: Kotányi Attila / Red .: Attila Kotányi)

Web links

• László Surányi-Ádám Tábor: The Budapest Dialogical School - Szabó Lajos [1]
• Lajos Szabó's website: Lajos Szabó (1902-1967) thinker and artist [2]
• Lajos Szabó: Seminar lectures 1947-1950, The 1st lecture: Psychology, translated by Éva Zádor [3]
• Lajos Szabó in the calligraphy collection of the Berlin Art Academy [4]
• Works from 1955 and 1956, including all works that are in the calligraphy collection of the Berlin Academy of the Arts [5]

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://lajosszabo.com/BPDISKNEM.html
2. ↑ Vádirat a szellem ellen - with Béla Tábor, Az Idő Könyvei, 1936; 2nd edition, Veszprém Comitatus, 1991
3. ↑ Bála Hamvas: Anklage gegen das Geist (review) In: Eikon: Die speculative Bildschriften von Lajos Szabó, Budapest, Ernst Múzeum, 1997, p. 73.
4. ↑ Ibid .: p. 73.
5. ↑ http://lajosszabo.com/SZL/Uri_Asaf_Sz_L_kiallitas_megnyito.pdf
6. ↑ Horváth Ágnes: Lélekjelenlét-képek - Szabó Lajos kiállítása 2B Galéria, 2011. március 21. - április 23 (pdf) lajosszabo.com. Retrieved June 5, 2017.
7. ↑ http://lajosszabokalligraphien5556.hu http://lajosszabokalligraphien5556.hu/de_DE/
8. ↑ http://lajosszabo.com/SZL/1980_FMK.pdf
9. ↑ https://berliner-sammlung-kalligraphie.de/kgraph_szabo.htm
10. ↑ http://lajosszabokalligraphien5556.hu/