Imagination/Idea 1971: The Beginning of Hungarian Conceptual Art

In 1971, Laszlo Beke—a renowned Hungarian art historian and curator—asked 28 artists to submit their reaction to the concept “WORK = the DOCUMENTATION OF THE IMAGINATION/IDEA” on A4 sheets. Beke arranged and preserved the contributions in folders, which have been available for viewing over the last 30 years only in his apartment, which has become a center of archival research for artists interested in Conceptual art. This comprehensive documentation is now published in facsimile with English translations, accompanied by Eszter Szakács's interview with Laszlo Beke and Beke’s essay on the context of the project, as well as biographical data on the participants, who include Imre Bak, Miklós Erdely, Gyorgy Jovanovics, Ilona Keseru, Dezso Korniss, Laszlo Lakner, Gyula Pauer, Geza Perneczky, Sándor Pinczehelyi, Tamas Szentjóby and Endre Tot, among others. This volume presents a cornerstone document of Conceptual art in Hungary for the first time.