Authors

Discussion

Cobra (1948–1951) was an international group of artists, the name of the group containing the abbreviations of the most important locations where the members lived: Copenhagen, Brussels and Amsterdam. However, the group of painters, poets and theoreticians had a much broader radiance: it was influential in France and the Scandinavian countries, with its specific blend of art brut and abstraction. The presentation explores the activity and formation of the Cobra group, analysing the circulation of artistic and theoretical ideas within the group as a specific model where the more traditional centre-periphery types of communicating ideas were challenged. The East‒West direction (from East-Central Europe to Western Europe) and North‒South direction (from Scandinavia to Central Europe) are considered and examined as an unlikely model of cultural exchange of the historical period, a network model that became however increasingly relevant during the next decades. The analysis focuses on but is not restricted to the case studies referring to the Hungarian contacts and members of the Cobra group.