Easy but not weightless – Pop Art, conceptual art, and politics: the progressive art of Miklós Erdély and Tamás Szentjóby in the second part of the 1960s

Abstract

Miklós Erdély’s theory of freedom can be analysed from the perspective of his general thoughts on the dichotomy of life and freedom.  However, the article focuses on the problem of Erdély’s theory of freedom in the context of the political. If, as he claims, freedom exists in art, then what is the relation of his art to the political, the actual conditions of freedom? This question can only be explored if his work is seen in context, in the context of the contemporary art scene of the 1960s. The paper claims that in comparison with the early neoavantgard art of Szentjóbi Tamás and company, Erdély’s work is tame or easy but surely not weightless.