Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0

Author-Name: Ákos Vajas
Author-Workplace-Name: Magyar Nemzeti Bank
Author-Email: vajasa@mnb.hu

Title: Presentation of the Hungarian Publications of the Magyar Nemzeti Bank
Published between 1950 and 1990 from a Visual Communication Perspective

Abstract: Upon hearing the name ‘Magyar Nemzeti Bank’, most people unwittingly think of
the main building near Szabadság tér in Budapest. This comes as no surprise, since
it is a distinctive, one-of-a-kind building, and its architectural style, the groups of
statues on its façade, and the windows adorning the interior are all astonishing
works of leading architects, sculptors and applied artists. The building has housed
the Bank’s professional activities for many decades and has symbolic significance in
Hungarian and international financial and economic policy. Despite the fact that the
Bank’s main building has been presented in many books through the painstakingly
meticulous work of various authors, the professionals playing a part in the Bank’s
past, their community and engagement as well as the Bank’s publications, i.e. the
journals circulated internally or externally that provided a publishing opportunity
for everyday information and experts’ serious professional works, are hardly
mentioned. The various publications are interesting and valuable not only because
of their visual appearance, but also because they represent a real rarity as regards
to their content. If we go beyond the surface, we can take a peek behind the curtain
and get to know, understand and in a sense relive all of the events in the Bank’s
distant past (e.g. personal recollections from during and after the Second World
War, the 1956 Revolution and its aftermath within the Bank). The accounts as well as
the illustrations, caricatures and drawings found here are of exceptional quality and
poke fun at the everyday events at an organisation and a discipline (economics) as
a whole. Furthermore, sometimes we can also see the artists’ honest self-reflection
about the social and political structure and atmosphere between 1945 and 1990.
This short description, which is far from comprehensive, was compiled on the one
hand to pique readers’ interest in visual communication, a topic rarely in the focus in 
economics, and on the other hand to pay tribute to the Bankszemle (Bank Review), 
and commemorate it on the 60th anniversary of its first publication.

Pages: 201-214
Volume: 16
Issue: 4
Year: 2017
File-URL: http://english.hitelintezetiszemle.hu/letoltes/fer-16-4-e3-vajas.pdf
File-Format: Application/pdf
Handle: RePEc:mnb:finrev:v:16:y:2017:i:4:p:201-214