''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 Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

and then in

Bratislava Bratislava (German: ''Pressburg'', Hungarian: ''Pozsony'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Slovakia, Slovak Republic and the fourth largest of all List of cities and towns on the river Danube, cities on the river Danube. ...

by the group Davisti. The journal featured illustrations by

Frans Masereel Frans Masereel (31 July 1889 – 3 January 1972) was a Belgium, Belgian painter and graphic artist who worked mainly in France. He is known especially for his woodcuts which focused on political and social issues, such as war and capitalism. He ...

George Grosz George Grosz (; ; born Georg Ehrenfried Groß; July 26, 1893 – July 6, 1959) was a German artist known especially for his caricatural drawings and paintings of Berlin life in the 1920s. He was a prominent member of the Berlin Dada and New Obj ...

Marc Chagall Marc Chagall (born Moishe Shagal; – 28 March 1985) was a Russian and French artist. An early modernism, modernist, he was associated with the School of Paris, École de Paris, as well as several major art movement, artistic styles and created ...

and others. It had a

Marxist Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...

(and later members

Titoist Titoism is a Types of socialism, socialist political philosophy most closely associated with Josip Broz Tito and refers to the ideology and policies of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia (LCY) during the Cold War. It is characterized by a br ...

) 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 A genre of arts criticism, literary criticism or literary studies is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical analysis of literature's ...

and

graphic designers A graphic designer is a practitioner who follows the discipline of graphic design, either within companies or organizations or independently. They are professionals in design and visual communication, with their primary focus on transforming ...

and visual artists like Ladislav Novomeský,

Ján Poničan Ján Poničan (pseudonym Ján Rob Poničan) (June 15, 1902, Očová – February 25, 1978, Bratislava) was a Slovak poet, novelist, lawyer, playwright and translator. Biography Poničan was born in to a peasant family, his parents died when he ...

, Peter Jilemnický, Andrej Bagar, Jozef Tomášik-Dumín, Jarko Elen, Fraňo Kráľ, Andrej Siracký, Ladislav Szántó,

Gustáv Husák Gustáv Husák ( , ; ; 10 January 1913 – 18 November 1991) was a Czechoslovak politician who served as the long-time First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia from 1969 to 1987 and the President of Czechoslovakia from 1975 ...

, Vladimir Clementis, Eduard Urx, Daniel Okáli, Alexander Matuška,

Ľudovít Fulla Ľudovít Fulla (27 February 1902, Ružomberok – 21 April 1980, Bratislava) was a Slovak painter, graphic artist, illustrator, stage designer and art teacher. He is considered one of the most important figures of Slovak creative art in the 20th ...

Mikuláš Galanda Mikuláš Galanda (4 May 1895 – 5 June 1938) was a painter and illustrator who was one of the most important pioneers and propagators of Slovak modern art. He is buried in the National Cemetery in Martin. Birth and education He was born in ...

and others. Revue was also a mediator of books by socialist writers (especially poets) like Ján Rob Poničan (''Som, Dva svety''),

Jiří Wolker Jiří Wolker (; 29 March 1900 – 3 January 1924) was a Czech poet. He was also marginally journalist and playwright. Although he lived a short life, he became one of the most important Czech poets. Life Jiří Wolker was born on 29 March 1900 ...

(''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 Marie Majerová (1 February 1882 – 16 January 1967) was a Czech writer and translator. Biography The daughter of working-class parents, she was born in Úvaly and grew up in Kladno. When she was sixteen, she began working as a servant in Budape ...

Zdeněk Nejedlý Zdeněk Nejedlý (10 February 1878 – 9 March 1962) was a Czech musicologist, historian, music critic, author, and politician whose ideas dominated the cultural life of what is now the Czech Republic for most of the twentieth century. Although ...

, Julius Fučík,

Ivan Olbracht Ivan Olbracht, born Kamil Zeman (6 January 1882 – 20 December 1952), was a Czech people, Czech writer, journalist, censor and translator of German language, German prose. Biography The son of writer Antal Stašek and his Jewish-born Catholic ...

, Ivan Sekanina and even the Russian writer

Ilya Ehrenburg Ilya Grigoryevich Ehrenburg (, ; – August 31, 1967) was a Soviet writer, revolutionary, journalist and historian. Ehrenburg was among the most prolific and notable authors of the Soviet Union; he published around one hundred titles. He becam ...

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 to point out the contradictions of interwar

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

. The concept of ''DAV'' magazine connected the political line on the one hand, and the

avant-garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...

aesthetic Aesthetics (also spelled esthetics) is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of beauty and taste, which in a broad sense incorporates the philosophy of art.Slater, B. H.Aesthetics ''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy,'' , acces ...

line on the other hand. ''DAV'' supported

internationalism Internationalism may refer to: * Cosmopolitanism, the view that all human ethnic groups belong to a single community based on a shared morality as opposed to communitarianism, patriotism and nationalism * International Style, a major architectura ...

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 Romain Rolland (; 29 January 1866 – 30 December 1944) was a French dramatist, novelist, essayist, art historian and Mysticism, mystic who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1915 "as a tribute to the lofty idealism of his literary pro ...

and

Maxim Gorky Alexei Maximovich Peshkov (; – 18 June 1936), popularly known as Maxim Gorky (; ), was a Russian and Soviet writer and proponent of socialism. He was nominated five times for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Before his success as an aut ...

). DAV members also wrote about the conflicts in Polomka or about the killing of a worker on the construction of the Červená Skala –

Margecany Margecany (, ) is a village and municipality in the Gelnica District in the Košice Region of eastern Slovakia. Total municipality population was, in 2011, 1964 inhabitants. Margecany is a very important railway junction situated on the main railw ...

railway. The DAV played an important role in shaping 1. philosophical and political ideas in Slovakia; 2. Slovak

left-wing politics Left-wing politics describes the range of Ideology#Political ideologies, political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social ...

and 3. in establishing

modernist Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

tendencies in Slovak visual art and literature.

Reflection

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 Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with decision-making, making decisions in social group, groups, or other forms of power (social and political), power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of Social sta ...

point of view it was mainly Viliam Plevza and Štefan Drug and from more the

, 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

. In 2002, 2012 and 2022, three conferences about Vladimir Clementis were organized in Bratislava. In 2022,

Matica slovenská Matica Slovenská (en. Slovak Matica) is the oldest Slovakia, Slovak national, Culture, cultural and scientific organization. The headquarters of Slovak Matica is the town of Martin, Slovakia as the center of the national culture of Slovak ...

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

(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,

poster A poster is a large sheet that is placed either on a public space to promote something or on a wall as decoration. Typically, posters include both typography, textual and graphic elements, although a poster may be either wholly graphical or w ...

s, 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

typography Typography is the art and technique of Typesetting, arranging type to make written language legibility, legible, readability, readable and beauty, appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, Point (typogra ...

, the equivalent of which can be found in the Czech

(Host, Pásmo). According to Lukáš Perný, when discussing the

component (visual dimension of the DAV revue design), the international context that connects it must not be overlooked: * 1. The influence between

and Slovakia-Bratislava; with

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

(texts of

theorist and poet

Lajos Kassák Lajos Kassák (March 21, 1887 – July 22, 1967) was a Hungarian poet, novelist, painter, essayist, editor, theoretician of the avant-garde, and translator. Self-taught, he became a writer within the socialist movement and published journa ...

published in DAV) (The DAV was part of the manifestations of Slovak modernism, which was closely connected with

), * 2. Feedback with

French culture The culture of France has been shaped by Geography of France, geography, by History of France, historical events, and by foreign and internal forces and groups. France, and in particular Paris, has played an important role as a center of high ...

(paintings by

in the first issue of DAV; controversy with

French poetry French poetry () is a category of French literature. It may include Francophone literature, Francophone poetry composed outside France and poetry written in other languages of France. French prosody and poetics The modern French language does not ...

), * 3. with

Russian avantgarde The Russian avant-garde was a large, influential wave of avant-garde modern art that flourished in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, approximately from 1890 to 1930—although some have placed its beginning as early as 1850 and its e ...

(Okali's appeal to

Mayakovsky Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky ( – 14 April 1930) was a Russian poet, playwright, artist, and actor. During his early, pre-Revolution period leading into 1917, Mayakovsky became renowned as a prominent figure of the Russian Futurist mov ...

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 Urban culture is the culture of towns and cities. The defining theme is the presence of a large population in a limited space that follows social norms. This makes it possible for many subcultures close to each other, exposed to social influence ...

in the form of satirical and social-critical images based on aestheticization of visuality of –bourgeois entertainment,

nightlife Nightlife is a collective term for entertainment that is available and generally more popular from the late evening into the early hours of the morning. It includes pubs, bars, nightclubs, parties, live music, concerts, cabarets, theatre, ...

, social periphery and poverty, prostitution, murders, political criticism (paintings by

Otto Dix Wilhelm Heinrich Otto Dix (; 2 December 1891 – 25 July 1969) was a German painter and Printmaking, printmaker, noted for his ruthless and harshly realistic depictions of German society during the Weimar Republic and the brutality of war. Alon ...

Georg Grosz George Grosz (; ; born Georg Ehrenfried Groß; July 26, 1893 – July 6, 1959) was a German artist known especially for his caricature, caricatural drawings and paintings of Berlin life in the 1920s. He was a prominent member of the Berlin Dada ...

– 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 A pamphlet is an unbound book (that is, without a Hardcover, hard cover or Bookbinding, binding). Pamphlets may consist of a single sheet of paper that is printed on both sides and folded in half, in thirds, or in fourths, called a ''leaflet'' ...

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 Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their use for the purpose of obtaining profit. This socioeconomic system has developed historically through several stages and is defined by ...

, and individualism), referring to

Trotsky Lev Davidovich Bronstein ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky,; ; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky'' was a Russian revolutionary, Soviet politician, and political theorist. He was a key figure ...

(art as a means of changing the economic establishment and helping to achieve

political power In political science, power is the ability to influence or direct the actions, beliefs, or conduct of actors. Power does not exclusively refer to the threat or use of force (coercion) by one actor against another, but may also be exerted thro ...

). Collectivism of DAV — according to J. Migašová — is based on reflections on collective art by

, and also under the influence of

Karel Teige Karel Teige (13 December 1900 – 1 October 1951) was a Czech modernist avant-garde artist, writer, critic and one of the most important figures of the 1920s and 1930s movement. He was a member of the '' Devětsil'' (Butterbur) movement in the ...

(Teige redefined the concept of

folk art Folk art covers all forms of visual art made in the context of folk culture. Definitions vary, but generally the objects have practical utility of some kind, rather than being exclusively decorative art, decorative. The makers of folk art a ...

) and early Devětstil.Migašová, Jana. ''Čaro neučeného. Preferencia naivného, primitivistické tendencie a slovenské výtvarné umenie v období 1918 –1972: príspevok k slovenskej výtvarnej moderne''. Prešov: Prešovská univerzita v Prešove, 2021

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dav Defunct magazines published in Slovakia Defunct political magazines Magazines established in 1924 Magazines disestablished in 1937 Mass media in Bratislava Magazines published in Prague Magazines published in Slovakia Marxist magazines Defunct magazines published in Czechoslovakia