Matsa, Ivan

(also Iogann Liudvigovich Matsa). Born Aug. 4, 1893, in Nizny Hrabovec, near Vranov, in Czechoslovakia. Soviet art scholar. Became a member of the CPSU in 1923.

Beginning in 1915, Matsa was a contributor to the Hungarian avant-garde literary magazines Tett (Action) and MA (Today). During the existence of the Hungarian Soviet Republic of 1919, he was the assistant director of the Budapest National Theater. Matsa, who has lived in the USSR since 1923, has taught at a number of Moscow institutes, including Moscow State University (1928; professor, since 1930). He was an active member of October (an organization of people of the arts) from 1928 to 1932 and a corresponding member of the Communist Academy from 1930 to 1936. Since the 1920’s, Matsa has been working on problems of aesthetics, the ties between art and industry, and the theory and history of architecture. He has been awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, the Order of the Red Banner of Labor of the Hungarian People’s Republic, and several medals.