Dav (journal)

Issue of DAV in 1925

Dav (based on the initials of the first names of Daniel Okáli, Andrej Sirácky and Vladimír Clementis) was a leftist journal published between 1924 and 1937 with intervals in Prague and then in Bratislava by the group Davisti. The journal featured illustrations by Frans Masereel, George Grosz, Marc Chagall and others. It had a Marxist stance. A reprint edition came out in 1965.

DAV included important Slovak writers, poets and cultural workers, scientists and philosophers, politicians and lawyers, literary critics and graphic designers and visual artists like Ladislav Novomeský, Ján Poničan, Peter Jilemnický, Andrej Bagar, Jozef Tomášik-Dumín, Jarko Elen, Fraňo Kráľ, Andrej Siracký, Ladislav Szántó, Gustáv Husák, Vladimir Clementis, Eduard Urx, Daniel Okáli, Alexander Matuška, Ľudovít Fulla, Mikuláš Galanda and others. Revue was also a mediator of books by socialist writers (especially poets) like Ján Rob Poničan (Som, Dva svety), Jiří Wolker (Večer, Sborník proletárskych básní), Laco Novomeský (Nedeľa) and others. The DAV mediated translations of world literature and reviews of works by authors such as H. Barbusse, T. Mann, G. B. Shaw, F. Nansen, J. London, U. Sinclair, and others. Czech writers such as Marie Majerová, Zdeněk Nejedlý, Julius Fučík, Ivan Olbracht, Ivan Sekanina and even the Russian writer Ilya Ehrenburg have also published in DAV. After the outbreak of the economic crisis in the 1930s, the authors of the DAV mediated demonstrations, protests and all popular actions against the government in order to point out the contradictions of interwar Czechoslovakia. The concept of DAV magazine connected the political line on the one hand, and the avant-garde aesthetic line on the other hand. DAV supported internationalism on the one hand, and too equality between Slovaks and Czechs (in the first period they stood in radical opposition to conservatism; later they found their own concept of national continuity with the social progressive movements of the past). The DAV actively reflected on the tragic events in Košúty (May 1931), where protesters were shot and killed during a workers' strike. DAV dedicated to this event the all issue of the journal and organized the Manifesto of Slovak Writers (they were also signed by E. B. Lukáč, J. G. Tajovský, M. Urban, J. Smrek and G. Vámoš). Clementis wrote letters to important writers like Romain Rolland and Maxim Gorky). DAV members also wrote about the conflicts in Polomka or about the killing of a worker on the construction of the Červená Skala - Margecany railway.

The DAV played an important role in shaping 1. philosophical and political ideas in Slovakia; 2. Slovak left-wing politics and 3. in establishing modernist tendencies in Slovak visual art and literature.

Reflection

Conference for the 110th anniversary of the birth of Slovak poet and politician Ladislav Novomeský. Rector of Comenius University RNDr. Karol Mičieta, CSc., philosopher prof. PhDr. Dalimír Hajko, DrSc. and organizer Lukáš Perný

Conference on the 120th anniversary of Vladimír Clementis and the 100th anniversary of Vladimír Mináč (ASA, Nové Slovo, Slovak Matica, SZPB), October 2022

The creative reflection of the DAV intellectual group was devoted to authors who also participated in their rehabilitation in the 1960s. From the historical-political point of view it was mainly Viliam Plevza and Štefan Drug and from more the aesthetic, culturological and literary point of view Karol Rosenbaum.

In the 21st century, M. Habaj, K. Csiba, P. Kerecman, D. Hajko, J. Lysý, J. Leikert, L. Perný, M. Krno, M. Gešper, E. Chmelár, J. Migašová, J. Baer and others devoted their texts to the reflection of DAV. In 1992, the last collection of Ladislav Novomeský's texts from 1960s entitled "Repayment of the Great Debt" was published in the V. Clementis Foundation. In 2015, L. Perný organized a conference for the 110th anniversary of the birth of Ladislav Novomeský in Bratislava. In 2002, 2012 and 2022, three conferences about Vladimir Clementis were organized in Bratislava. In 2022, Matica slovenská and ASA Institute organized a conference for Vladimír Clementis (the 120th anniversary) and Vladimír Mináč (the 120th anniversary) and in 2023 for Daniel Okáli (the 120th anniversary).

Aesthetic aspects

According to Lukáš Perný, the author of the cover of the DAV revue was Mikuláš Galanda (with the alias La Ganda), who, together with Ľ. Fulla created the artistic identity of the DAV revue. They collaborated with DAV members through books, posters, and bulletins; for example, Fulla illustrated a book by Ján Rob Poničan before the formation of the DAV and Galanda created drawings for Novomeský’s debut poetry book. The Revue also contains the first Slovak attempt at modernist typography, the equivalent of which can be found in the Czech avant-garde (Host, Pásmo).

According to Lukáš Perný, when discussing the aesthetic component (visual dimension of the DAV revue design), the international context that connects it must not be overlooked:

• 1. The influence between Prague and Slovakia-Bratislava; with Hungary (texts of avant-garde theorist and poet Lajos Kassák published in DAV) (The DAV was part of the manifestations of Slovak modernism, which was closely connected with Prague),
• 2. Feedback with French culture (paintings by Frans Masereel in the first issue of DAV; controversy with French poetry),
• 3. with Russian avantgarde (Okali’s appeal to Mayakovsky in the DAV 1924; mentions of Mejerchold, Mayakovsky, Erenburg in DAV 1925/1),4. with German avantgarde (especially art of the New Objectivity – aesthetics of experience with urban culture in the form of satirical and social-critical images based on aestheticization of visuality of –bourgeois entertainment, nightlife, social periphery and poverty, prostitution, murders, political criticism (paintings by Otto Dix, Georg Grosz – published in DAV revue).

According to Lukáš Perný, D. Okáli’s text – with the motto “Not an artistic program! An artistic act!”–represents a pamphlet article of the DAV on social-revolutionary art. Ideologically, (D. Okáli) finds the function of art and culture in the revolutionary rebirth of society, a radical split with tradition (criticism of bourgeois ideology, clericalism, capitalism, and individualism), referring to Trotsky (art as a means of changing the economic establishment and helping to achieve political power). Collectivism of DAV — according to J. Migašová — is based on reflections on collective art by Lajos Kassák, and also under the influence of Jiří Wolker, Karel Teige (Teige redefined the concept of folk art) and early Devětstil.