Festive Book Week 1953

Sinka Mátyás

Publication Date: 1953

About this Item

Size: A4 (cca. 29 x 21 cm). Festive book weeks are nationally organised cultural events which are being held since 1929 in Hungary The first event took place in Budapest but later numerous other cities started to participate The aim of the event is to gain bigger popularity for reading books and familiarize the earlier and contemporary books with audience This piece was created for the festive book week between 1952 and 1956 The painted poster artwork was designed by Matyas Sinka Sinka is a fine Hungarian graphic artist who was mostly active between the 1950s and the 1970s He created many humorous and interesting posters for official propaganda and for campaigns for prevention from accidents promoting healthcare traffic rules and anti alcoholism But he also designed numerous commercial and cultural posters He refined his often cartoon like expressive style mostly during the 1960s This work however had been designed in the beginning of the 1950s in the era of intense political control over art The artwork is highly connected to the period by its graphical character as it is a good representative of the socialist realist design of the age Socialist Realism was the key tool of the Hungarian political dictatorship in their extensive propaganda activity in the first part of the 1950s just as in other Eastern European countries in the Soviet Union As other artists poster designers also had to meet the requirements of a socialist content and a realist manner Thus mostly a heroic figurative portrayal was employed to make the propagandistic messages clear and easy to understand This work is a good example of the tendency that a lot of poster designs looked like a cut out of a painting as the differences of the two genres was artificially blurred Gunda applied slow brushwork and a detailed realist portrayal and he represented the event in a propagandistic way with national and socialist symbols This way the content of the poster was also accepted by the political party A woman can be seen in the foreground as she is obsessively reading a book She is wearing a light pink shirt buttoned up until the neck Her appearance and activity reflects the proper behaviour supported and expected by the state In the background the national flag appears above and a huge crowd of people is displayed as they surround the statue of S ndor Pet fi the iconic Hungarian poet He had lived a century before and was given the name the poet of the people so the socialist political leadership exploited his symbolic figure for their own political purposes The statue depicted him with the arm lifted up high and this move is imitated by the people around The resulting composition has a highly uplifted and an immensely demagogue character to fulfil the propagandistic role Reading a book is represented here as a strangely heroic activity to emphasize the importance of the event Today it is interesting to see the painterly nature of the poster maquette and because of the propaganda the piece is an exciting historic relic as well. Seller Inventory # 3310

Bibliographic Details

Title: Festive Book Week 1953

Publication Date: 1953

Binding: Paint on cardboard.

Condition: Near mint.