Marcel Duchamp, Musée Jean Tinguely Bâle

Marcel Duchamp
Musée Jean Tinguely Bâle
20 mars – 30 juin 2002 

L'exposition conçue par Harald Szeemann montre pour la première fois depuis 1960 sous une forme représentative l'oeuvre de Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968) grâce à des prêts très importants.

L'oeuvre de Duchamp, tout comme sa personnalité, occupent une place centrale dans l'histoire de l'art du XXe siècle. Son influence se poursuit jusqu'à nos jours par le fait qu'il a montré ouvertement et de manière provocante le rapport entre l'art et la vie, les conditions de la création et a ainsi modifié de manière décisive la notion d'oeuvre d'art et de son créateur.

L'exposition présente des oeuvres sélectionnées de Marcel Duchamp et se concentre surtout sur les aspects qui ont exercé une influence durable sur Jean Tinguely (1925–1991): mouvements mécaniques et optiques, jeux et humour. Les Ready-mades, dans lesquels il intitule oeuvre d'art un objet courant, un vélo ou un urinoir ainsi que l'utilisation du hasard comme média artistique dans ses 3 Stoppages Etalons (1913-14/1964) deviendront une importante source d'inspiration pour le jeune Tinguely à Paris, au début des années 60. 

Les essais optiques et les inventions Rotative plaques de verre (1920/1960) de Duchamp et ses Rotoreliefs qui génèrent des illusions optiques et des volumes virtuels à l'aide d'une machine sont présentés à côté des sculptures cinétiques de Tinguely.

Dans son tableau intitulé Nu descendant un escalier No 2, de 1912, Marcel Duchamp décompose le mouvement d'un nu en vues séquentielles de surfaces abstraites et crée ainsi une « image statique du mouvement ». On peut également admirer l'une des répliques signées de l'oeuvre majeure énigmatique de Duchamp, La mariée mise à nu par ses célibataires, même (également appelée Grand Verre), qu'il fabriqua – retiré et après un long travail de 1915 à 1923 – par la technique du fil de plomb sur verre et qu'il n'achèvera jamais. Des dessins et peintures comme la Première recherche pour la mariée mise à nu (1912) et La Broyeuse de Chocolat No 1 de 1913, complètent la présentation du Grand Verre.

Les Boîtes en Valise sont des musées miniatures en valises dans lesquelles Duchamp met en question l'unicité de l'oeuvre d'art ainsi que la notion traditionnelle du musée avec des reproductions de ses œuvres et modèles des Ready-mades. En 1920, il donne vie à son alter ego Rrose Sélavy et déclare sa propre personne comme œuvre d'art en se faisant photographier comme femme par Man Ray. Dans L.H.O.O.Q, une reproduction avec barbiche et moustache de la fameuse Joconde de Vinci, l'artiste se fait provocateur en jouant avec ambivalence et irritation avec l'observateur. A côté de ses objets érotiques, l'exposition présente également des œuvres rattachées au travail d'installation Etant donnés réalisé seulement après sa mort au Philadelphia Museum of Art. Elle est complétée par une documentation importante préparée par Jacques Caumont bien connu pour ses recherches sur Duchamp. L'exposition a été réalisée en collaboration avec la Succession Marcel Duchamp et l'aide de ses enfants d'un autre lit, Jacqueline, Paul et Peter Matisse.

Marcel Duchamp, Catalogue de l'exposition

© Hatje Cantz

Un catalogue d'exposition richement illustré est publié en français, allemand et anglais aux éditions Hatje Cantz; il comporte un avant-propos de Harald Szeemann et Guido Magnaguagno, des textes de Marcel Duchamp ainsi que d'auteurs célèbres tels que Elisabeth Bronfen, Dieter Daniels, Marc Décimo et Herbert Molderings et une interview importante de Jean Tinguely sur la personnalité et l'œuvre de Marcel Duchamp. Le catalogue est complété par une chronologie complète rédigée par Jacques Caumont ainsi qu'un encart « Mirage vers Bâle ». Prix: environ CHF 59.-

MUSEE TINGUELY BÂLE
MUSEUM TINGUELY BASEL
Paul Sacher-Anlage 2, CH-4002 Bâle
www.tinguely.ch

Updated 05.07.2020

Jeff Wall: Prix Hasselblad 2002

Jeff Wall reçoit le Prix International de la Photographie 2002 de la Fondation Hasselblad

La Fondation Hasselblad a décerné le Prix international de la Photographie 2002 au photographe canadien JEFF WALL. Le prix doté d'un montant de 500 000 couronnes suédoises et d'une médaille d'or sera remis le 9 novembre 2002 lors d'une cérémonie qui se déroulera à Göteborg en Suède. A cette occasion, sera inaugurée une nouvelle exposition des œuvres de Jeff Wall organisée par le Centre Hasselblad.

La Fondation Hasselblad a décidé de remettre le Prix 2002 à Jeff Wall pour les motifs suivants :

Depuis plus de vingt ans, Jeff Wall donne à voir un étonnant corpus artistique, qui utilise la photographie de façon très novatrice, contribuant ainsi à donner au support photographique une place essentielle dans l’art contemporain. A travers des images soigneusement mises en scène, parfois soumises à des modifications digitales, présentées dans des caissons lumineux empruntés à l’univers publicitaire, il explore quantité de thèmes politiques et sociaux, tels que la violence urbaine, la pauvreté, la guerre des sexes, la lutte des classes, l’histoire, la mémoire, la représentation, parmi d’autres. Qu’elles soient en couleur ou en noir et blanc, les photographies de l’artiste entretiennent un dialogue continu avec la grande peinture de genre du dix-neuvième siècle, et nous le montrent sous les aspects de ce que Baudelaire appelait un « peintre de la vie moderne ».

Le Jury du Prix 2002 qui a soumis sa proposition au Conseil d'administration de la Fondation se compose de M. Régis Durand (président), Directeur du Centre national de la photographie, Paris, Madame Kate Bush, conservatrice, Londres, M. Sune Nordgren, directeur, Gateshead, Grande Bretagne, M. Urs Stahel, conservateur, Winterthur, Suisse et Madame Tove Thage, conservatrice, Hillerød, Danemark.

Jeff Wall est né à Vancouver, au Canada, en 1946. Il produit ses premières oeuvres à la fin des années soixante, avant de s’interrompre pour étudier l’histoire de l’art; il reprendra son activité artistique, sur des bases différentes, au milieu des années soixante-dix. Entre-temps, la photographie lui est apparue comme un support ouvert, grâce auquel il peut satisfaire des aspirations en apparence contradictoires : son intérêt, d’une part, pour un type de représentation « néoréaliste », documentaire ; et, de l’autre, la possibilité de faire référence à certains aspects de la peinture. Le modèle dont il s’inspire est le cinéma — ou plutôt, pour reprendre ses propres termes, la « cinématographie », dont il reprend certaines des techniques et des méthodes.

Ses photographies, grandes images couleur sur film transparent, qu’il présente dans des caissons d’aluminium lumineux du type de ceux dont la publicité fait couramment usage, témoignent d’une mise en scène soigneusement orchestrée, dans laquelle interviennent acteurs et accessoires. Cet objet visuel nouveau pour l’époque (mais souvent imité depuis) offre l’attrait et l’éclat de l’image filmique, en même temps que l’ampleur et l’ordonnance tranquille de la peinture traditionnelle ainsi que la densité et le réalisme pur de la photographie de rue. Il s’agit en fait d’une « monumentalisation », non seulement en taille mais aussi en complexité, de l’image de rue.

Au nombre des thèmes les plus fréquemment explorés dans les débuts, figurent des scènes de la vie urbaine (Milk, 1984 ; Diatribe, 1985 ; The Storyteller, 1986), de tension raciale (Mimic, 1982) et de pauvreté (Bad Goods, 1984, Eviction Struggle, 1988), toutes fortement connotées sur le plan politique. Mais on trouve aussi des paysages urbains — The Old Prison, 1987 ; Coastal Motifs, 1989 ; The Crooked Path, 1991 — dont toute théâtralité ou narrativité semblent absentes.

Les œuvres de Jeff Wall comportent souvent un aspect énigmatique — nous invitant à l’interprétation, mais aussi à laisser notre imagination suivre son cours librement. La composante imaginaire du travail se trouve renforcée par l’utilisation de la technologie digitale dans certaines des œuvres les plus récentes, telles que Dead Troops Talk, 1991--92 ; A Sudden Gust of Wind (after Hosukai), 1933; ou encore The Flooded Grave, 1998-2000. Grâce aux montages complexes et à la stratification que permet la technologie, le fantastique devient un élément important du travail. Pourtant, l’ambiguïté qui caractérise bien des œuvres n’est pas uniquement un effet de la technique utilisée. Dans les grandes photographies en noir et blanc produites par Jeff Wall ces dernières années, quelque chose semble s’être immobilisé, comme si la tension dramatique, l’aspect plus théâtral de son travail, avaient opéré un recul. Mais un mystère demeure, une sorte de quiétude trompeuse des apparences simples (Cyclist, 1996; Passerby, 1996). Ses intérieurs, en particulier, paraissent hantés, ainsi qu’en témoigne l’œuvre de 1996 intitulée Housekeeping.

Ce qui est si extraordinaire à propos de Jeff Wall, c’est que ses photographies, outre qu’elles sont splendides sur le plan visuel, sont toujours chargées de signification. Parfois, les significations s’imposent de façon claire et fulgurante. Mais le plus souvent, on les ressent comme diffuses, comme exigeant de nous une attention plus rapprochée et peutêtre aussi un acte d’imagination. La préparation et la production minutieuses apparaissent alors comme la condition permettant de donner forme aux différentes strates de signification ; pour autant, elles ne dont pas didactiques, mais ménagent toujours, pour le spectateur, un espace de liberté d’interprétation et d’associations personnelles.

Lorsque, reprenant à son compte l’expression de Baudelaire, Jeff Wall se décrit comme un « peintre de la vie moderne », il exprime ce qui le lie à ce grand moment du XIXe siècle qu’a représenté l’effondrement des genres et le surgissement de nouveaux thèmes, ainsi que son désir de retrouver quelque chose des énergies alors à l’œuvre. Mais, plus littéralement, il décrit aussi les thèmes dont il traite réellement, notamment la manière dont des situations individuelles apparaissent comme le produit de conditions sociales.

La photographie lui permet d’opérer la fusion entre l’intérêt qu’il voue aux images complexes produites par les plus belles œuvres peintes du XIXe et la fluidité réaliste de l’image mécanique. Et c’est grâce à cette fusion qu’il parvient à nous faire comprendre les élans contradictoires qui caractérisent la vie d’aujourd’hui, les changements constants qu’elle subit, la rapidité avec laquelle les humeurs et les conditions se transforment. Il offre à notre regard un nouvel objet visuel de toute beauté, que l’on peut aussi lire comme une splendide et fragmentaire « anthropologie de la vie contemporaine ».

Texte écrit en anglais par Régis Durand et traduit par Fabienne Durand-Bogaert et Christine Hammarstrand.

FONDATION HASSELBLAD
Ekmansgatan 8, 412 56 Göteborg, Suède
www.hasselbladfoundation.org

Swedish Art Glass Design

 

  Planet by Lena Bergström. Photo courtesy of Orrefors

The Swedish glass put Orrefors on the design map when the designers Lena Bergström and Jan Johansson in the interior fair 100% design (26-29/9) exhibited art glass in London.

Jan Johansson displayed massive, grinded, glass sculptures at Harrod's.

Lena Bergström was at the same time represented at two jury-judged exhibitions with her new art glass series "planet" partly at "ELLE Decorations" exhibition case at the 100% Design Fair and partly at Bombay Sapphire's design exhibition. For the "Planet" series, Lena Bergström received the honour "Best Design in Accessories" by ELLE Decoration Design Awards 2002.

 

  Planet by Lena Bergström. Photo courtesy of Orrefors

Richard Misrach, Robert Mann Gallery, NYC - Battleground Point

Richard Misrach : Battleground Point
Robert Mann Gallery, New York
March 7 - April 27, 2002

Acclaimed photographer Richard Misrach has been creating images of the American West for more than thirty years. Battleground Point presents his most recent work, a series of photographs documenting the rare presence of water in the Nevada desert.

Richard Misrach recalls driving across the Mojave Desert - a seemingly desolate and foreboding place - as a child with his family. Returning to the desert years later as an artist, he was awestruck by the severe beauty of the landscape. Richard Misrach began an expansive series of photographs entitled The Desert Cantos, simultaneously portraying the unique light, terrain, and inhabitants of the desert and addressing the controversial politics of this precious environment. In the spring of 1999, Richard Misrach was commissioned by The Nature Conservancy to photograph the Nevada desert. While visiting Carson Sink, he captured serene pools of water caused by flooding due to unusually high rainfall. The resulting images - meditative studies of land, water, and sky - comprise the upcoming exhibition 'Richard Misrach : Battleground Point'.

Every decade or so, heavy winter storms batter the desert of northern Nevada, filling the Carson and Humboldt rivers beyond capacity and flooding the Carson Sink. As high waters receded from the sink in the mid-eighties, hundreds of graves slowly emerged from the mud. Archaeologists were able to account for 416 individuals who lived in the area over the course of 3000 years, some of whom may be the genetic ancestors of today's Toidikadi (also known as the Stillwater Paiute). According to oral history, the Toidikadi once were at war with a tribe of red-headed giants about whom little else is known. Of their legendary battle, won by the Toidikadi, only the site and its name today remain : Battleground Point. In 1998, torrential rains again flooded the Carson Sink. These photographs were made in the spring of that year on a commission from the Nature Conservancy for the exhibition, In Response To Place.

The following appeared in the March 25 edition of 'The New Yorker' : "This is the twenty-fourth installment of Richard Misrach's "Desert Canto" series in nearly as many years and it's stunning. The current batch were taken in Nevada's Carson Sink, in an area that floods every decade or so, and its images of a watery desert landscape connect sky, sand, and water in a way that seems positively unearthly. In one sequence, the shifting light captured in print after print makes the same dune almost unrecognizable. Richard Misrach's huge color prints create a majestic vision of a world acting strangely."

Richard Misrach was born on July 11, 1949 in Los Angeles, California. He attended the University of California, Berkeley at the height of the antiwar movement in the 1960s. After graduation, he pursued independent work in photography, receiving his first National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship for a series of images documenting street people on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley. In 1979, Misrach began to photograph the American desert in earnest, choosing to print exclusively in color with a large format camera. Richard Misrach has completed numerous other series, including work in Greece, Hawaii, and Africa. He has received four National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships and a Guggenheim Fellowship. His work is represented in more than fifty major international museum collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. He continues to travel and photograph extensively in the American West and abroad.

ROBERT MANN GALLERY
210 Eleventh Avenue, New York, NY 10001
www.robertmann.com

José Clemente Orozco in the United States, 1927-1934 at San Diego Museum of Art

José Clemente Orozco in the United States, 1927-1934

San Diego Museum of Art

March 9 - May 19, 2002

The San Diego Museum of Art is the opening venue for a comprehensive, internationally touring exhibition of works by the important Mexican artist José Clemente Orozco, the first major exhibition in the United States of Orozco in more than forty years. José Clemente Orozco in the United States, 1927-1934 explores the extensive body of work Orozco produced during an extended stay in the United States. The exhibition is organized by the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, in collaboration with the Museo de Arte Alvar y Carmen T. Carrillo Gil, Mexico City, the two other venues on the tour's schedule. Featuring more than 120 paintings, prints, drawings, watercolors, and preparatory studies for murals, all showcasing Orozco's revolutionary artistic vision, it is the first major exhibition to focus on his time in the United States.

"The Museum is delighted to be able to present such a significant exhibition of works by Orozco who, along with Diego Rivera, Frida Khalo, and David Alfaro Siqueiros, is counted among the most important Mexican artists of the twentieth century. With San Diego's proximity to the border, this exhibition is the perfect opportunity to build upon the Mexican-American cultural exchange Orozco and his contemporaries established some seventy-five years ago," says the San Diego Museum of Art's executive director, Don Bacigalupi.

The development of this exhibition has brought together Mexican, British, and American scholars who have made a special study of twentieth-century Mexican art and of the artistic and cultural relations between the two nations. The result is a comprehensive survey of José Clemente Orozco's work of this period, never before assembled in a single exhibition. José Clemente Orozco in the United States, 1927-1934 explores the transformations in Orozco's subjects, style, and working methods, and the charged cultural climate in which he created such a diverse body of work. The exhibition also chronicles his experiences as a cultural émigré and his attempts to negotiate the complex network of art patronage in the United States. It is curated by Renato González Mello, professor and researcher at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and former curator at the Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil, and Diane Miliotes, research curator at the Hood Museum of Art.

Beginning in 1927 José Clemente Orozco spent seven years in the United States. These years coincided with unprecedented cultural exchange between Mexico and the United States. During this time, in addition to his important murals at Pomona College, Claremont, California; the New School for Social Research, New York; and Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, Orozco created a substantial body of work in other media. Viewed as a whole, his work from this period sheds light on the artist's complex creative and political development and provides an illuminating case study on the influence of Mexican visual artists in the United States.

José Clemente Orozco's contemporaries Diego Rivera and David Alfaro Siqueiros also visited the United States in these years, but their stays were brief. Traveling north from Mexico to seek new patrons for their mural commissions, these three artists all confronted an unfamiliar culture and a modernity that at once attracted and repelled them. Orozco's works, including his mural commissions in the United States, were deeply affected by these experiences. His murals brought him the international recognition that he desired, and when he returned to Mexico in 1934, he did so with a strong reputation and new mural commissions in his homeland.

The works in the exhibition show the significant impact living in the United States had on José Clemente Orozco's art, resulting, first and foremost, in the production of a new and extensive body of work that covered a broader range of subjects than the artist had treated before. During this period, he continued to focus on the intellectual and social issues that had long been his central concern, but he no longer treated them exclusively in terms of Mexican subject matter. Thus visitors see alongside his paintings and drawings of the people and landscape of his native country—e.g., Colinas Mexicanas (1930) or Desfile zapatista (1931)-representations of the modern American metropolis: its skyscrapers and bridges, its workers, and those who lost their jobs during the Great Depression.

Also on view, images such as Mannikins (1931), Aquella noche (1930), and Los muertos (1931) demonstrate the artist's awareness of and engagement with contemporary art in Europe and the United States. In addition, the exhibition includes a number of preparatory drawings for the three murals he executed in the United States, providing remarkable insight into José Clemente Orozco's working method and his development of the murals from initial conception to the final product. Finally, another important aspect of Orozco's work included in the exhibition are the striking lithographs he created in the late 1920s and early 1930s, his first works in this medium.

After its presentation at the San Diego Museum of Art (March 9 to May 19, 2002), José Clemente Orozco in the United States, 1927-1934, travels to the Hood Museum of Art, Hanover, New Hampshire (June 8 to December 15, 2002) and the Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil, Mexico City (January 25 to April 13, 2003). The exhibition itinerary allows visitors to view the exhibition in conjunction with nearby Orozco murals in southern California, New Hampshire, and Mexico City.

A fully illustrated scholarly catalogue, available in both English and Spanish editions, accompanies the exhibition. It features essays by a multinational group of art historians including Dawn Ades, Alicia Azuela, Jacquelynn Baas, Karen Cordero, Rita Eder, Renato González Mello, Diane Miliotes, James Oles, Francisco Reyes Palma, and Victor Sorell.

This exhibition is organized by the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College.

SAN DIEGO MUSEUM OF ART

1450 El Prado, Balboa Park, San Diego, CA

www.sdmart.org

Michael Gross, Israel Museum, Jerusalem - Recent Works

Michael Gross: Recent Works

Israel Museum, Jerusalem

Opening February 26, 2002

Born in Tiberias in 1920 as a sixth generation sabra, Michael Gross has emerged as one of Israel's leading painters and sculptors, his achievements culminating in his receipt of the Israel Prize for Sculpture in 2002. Gross's art expresses close identification with the geographical and biographical landscape of his childhood, responding to the hot climate and vistas of the Galilee and Jerusalem.

The exhibition includes over 25 paintings and two sculptures, drawn from the Museum's collections and from private sources, the majority of which have been created in the past ten years. A few of his earlier works will also be featured to allow for comparative study of his later works. The range of work spans from a 1949 sculpture of his mother, through to a painting completed in the wake of the September 11th terrorist attacks on the United States.

The tragedy of pain and loss are repeated themes in Gross's work. Over the years, he returned often to portraits of his late father, who in 1939 was stabbed to death by Arabs at his farm near the Sea of Galilee. This traumatic event left a permanent mark on Gross and provided the initial stimulus for his painting.

Michael Gross's desire to preserve and immortalize reflects both a representational and expressionist approach: the desire to capture a particular moment in reality together with a particular emotional state. The interplay of expression and representation lies at the heart of Gross's works, which are characterized by an unresolved tension between heroism and lyricism, asceticism and sensuality, loneliness and intimacy. Gross's paintings demand full concentration, as the viewer strives to decipher the enigmatic truth of a work and to understand its essence.

The exhibition, curated by Yigal Zalmona, Chief Curator-at-Large.

It is on view in the Ayala Zacks Abramov Pavilion for Israel Art, accompanied by a fully-illustrated catalogue.

ISRAEL MUSEUM, JERUSALEM

www.imj.org.il

Russian Avant-Garde, MoMA, NYC - The Russian Avant-Garde Book: 1910–1934

The Russian Avant-Garde Book: 1910–1934

MoMA, New York

March 21 - May 21, 2002

The Russian Avant-Garde Book, 1910–1934 is prompted by an extraordinary gift to MoMA of over 1,000 Russian avant-garde illustrated books from The Judith Rothschild Foundation, New York. The gift is the largest to the Department of Prints and Illustrated Books since Abby Aldrich Rockefeller established the collection in the 1940s with her donation of 1,600 prints. The Rothschild gift represents all the significant artistic developments of the period and features works by major artists including Kazimir Malevich, Olga Rozanova, Natalia Goncharova, El Lissitzky, Aleksandr Rodchenko, and many others. It also encompasses areas of special interest to members of the Russian avant-garde, including children’s books and Judaica. This comprehensive resource has been characterized by experts in the field as among the most significant collections of its kind worldwide.

The Rothschild gift joins over 400 works from the Russian avant-garde period already in the Museum’s collections of painting and sculpture, drawings, photography, film, architecture and design, prints and illustrated books, as well as the library. MoMA’s founding director, Alfred H. Barr, Jr., initiated the Museum’s interest in this crucial period in the history of modern art.

It is widely recognized that Russian avant-garde artists’ experimentation was fundamental to the development of abstraction in the early years of this century. The 1917 Revolution brought about a complete transformation of the artist’s role in Russian society with utilitarianism defining the new cultural climate. The exhibition is organized around three major themes:

A Slap in the Face of Public Taste

The first section is titled after an early manifesto by artists and poets, in which they responded to what they considered the stultifying conventions of academic taste and bourgeois sensibility. Natalia Goncharova, Mikhail Larionov, Olga Rozanova, Kazimir Malevich, among others, collaborated with writers and poets, including Aleksei Kruchenykh, Velimir Khlebnikov, and Vasilii Kamenskii, to forge a new language of abstraction through experimentation with Cubo-Futurism, Primitivism, and Rayonism. Many of these poets and painters practiced both mediums, and most were friends, siblings, or spouses; collaboration on books was one important result of this creative ferment. Early books were intended to shock the reader with variously sized pages made of coarse papers, illustrations entwined with printed, hand-written, and rubber-stamped text, as well as provocative covers.

Transform the World!

The second section expands on the developments of the earlier period. Artists turned to book design with great optimism to reach the masses. In both paintings and printed treatises, Malevich pushed abstraction to its limit in his development of Suprematism, conceived as a metaphysical visual metaphor for heralding the new world. Aleksandr Rodchenko and El Lissitzky were major artistic voices in the development of Constructivism, which focused on the rational and machine-made and came to symbolize a new future. Typography became an important aspect of Constructivism, often combined with bold black and red abstract designs. Poets such as Vladimir Mayakovsky, who was also an artist, played an integral role in the interdisciplinary development of illustrated books during this period. Photography was also a primary vehicle of communication, and photomontage dominated many covers and illustrations.

Building Socialism: Agitation Art

The final section of the exhibition presents the variety of ways the art of the book was used to serve the Soviet government’s agenda. Journals showcased modern Soviet architecture with covers of bold graphic design. Trade catalogues promoted Soviet industry with innovative layouts and typographical design. Magazines designed by avant-garde artists utilized photography and photomontage to spread the message of Soviet modernization and progress to the broadest possible audience. Innovative works by Lissitzky and Rodchenko, as well as by other artists including Varvara Stepanova, Solomon Telingater, Gustav Klutsis and the Stenberg brothers, demonstrate a continued experimentation with the book format. The exhibition ends with the notorious 1934 decree by Stalin that only Socialist Realism would be tolerated. Thus, a remarkable period of innovation in the production of illustrated books came to a close.

Catalogue

The Russian Avant-Garde Book: 1910–1934

Catalogue of the exhibition

© The Museum of Modern Art

A major publication illustrating all the books in the exhibition accompanies the exhibition. In addition to over 600 illustrations, the catalogue contains essays by the co-curators and other specialists: Jared Ash, Nina Gurianova, and Gerald Janecek. These includes an overview of the Russian avant-garde book in the context of the history of modern illustrated books; studies of the book both before and after the 1917 Revolution; and texts on specific stylistic and literary issues. The documentary portion of the book includes a complete checklist of all the books in the gift from The Judith Rothschild Foundation. There is also be a comprehensive bibliography and index.

The exhibition is organized by Deborah Wye, Chief Curator of Prints and Illustrated Books, The Museum of Modern Art, and Margit Rowell, Guest Curator.

The Russian Avant-Garde Book, 1910–1934 travels to the Museo Nacional Centra de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, November 4, 2002-January 27, 2003; and the Museum fur Angewandte Kunst, Frankfurt am Main, September 24, 2003-January 25, 2004.

MoMA - MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, NYC

www.moma.org

Updated 16.01.2021