The exhibition will examine the journal's short life through photographs, manuscripts, music, personal memorabilia, audio recordings and archive films. It will also feature portraits of Mihály Babits, Zsigmond Móricz, Frigyes Karinthy, Lőrinc Szabó, Ernő Osvát, Miksa Fenyő and Aladár Schöpflin, all contributors to the journal.
In conjunction with the exhibition, the museum will launch an online contest to choose the best material that appeared in Nyugat over its thirty-plus years. At the end of the year, the museum will publish the material, based on votes, in a new "issue" of Nyugat.
Nyugat was founded by the poet and critic Ignotus, the political and economic journalist Miksa Fenyő and the critic Ernő Osvát. The first issue was published on January 1, 1908, with the financial support of Lajos Hatvany. Among the contents of the issue, which had a print run of just a few hundred copies, was a study by Endre Ady. The aim of the journal was to elevate Hungarian literature to the same level as Western literature. The journal also backed progressive politics and culture.
Nyugat published Hungary's youngest writers as well established authors. Among the older generation appearing in its pages were Endre Ady, Mihály Babits, Dezső Kosztolányi, Árpád Tóth, Frigyes Karinthy, Margit Kaffka, Zsigmond Móricz and Géza Csáth. The generation appearing in the 1920s included Lőrinc Szabó, László Németh, Áron Tamási and Endre Andor Gelléri. The youngest generation to be published in Nyugat boasted names such as Miklós Radnóti, Sándor Weöres, István Vas and Antal Szerb.
In 1929, Osvát committed suicide and Ignotus resigned as editor. The journal's financing dried up. Zsigmond Móricz rescued the paper with a cash injection and became its editor. Mihály Babits and Oszkár Gellért were appointed deputy editors. Because of differences over the direction of the journal, Móricz left in 1933, leaving the top editorial post to Babits.
The journal folded up after Babits's death in August 1941.
Source: Hungarian News Agency (MTI)
