Timeline

A member of the circle of Hungarian Activism organized around Lajos Kassák, he studied at Rippl- Rónai, and Kernstok (1913), and was employed in illustrating and design posters. He joined the progressive artistic newsletter called Ma (Today) and became one of the most accomplished members of the socially driven avant-garde. His cubist-expressionistic lino cuts inspired by revolutionary ideas were published in 1918. After the fall of the Hungarian Soviet Republic in August of 1919, he was forced to leave the country. For some time he painted in an expressionist style, but by 1921 his work had become non-figurative. In the summer of 1922, he settled in Weimar and stayed there for two years. Bortnyik did not become a member of Bauhaus but he studied its principles and methods. The co-existence of styles characterized his works for some time: constructivism, expressionism and cubism. After returning to Hungary in 1925, he established a short-lived avantgarde theater with Ödön Palasovszky and István Hevesy. His constructivist posters soon appeared in Budapest. He founded a school for poster designing in 1928. By the mid-1930s, his art had undergone a change in content and style: he painted pictures of workers, peasants and circus showmen in the post-Nagybánya style. From 1949 to 1956, he was the director of the Art School. Sandor Bortnyik died in Budapest in 1976.