THE 20TH CENTURY POSTER: DESIGN OF THE AVANT GARDE
Dawn Ades
Dawn Ades: THE 20TH CENTURY POSTER: DESIGN OF THE AVANT GARDE. NYC: Abbeville Press, 1984. First edition. A nearly fine softcover book in thick, printed wrappers: white wrappers lightly worn. Interior unmarked and very clean. Out-of-print.
10 x 10 softcover book with 216 pages and 97 color illustrations and 83 black and white illustrations. Contributions by Robert Brown, Alma Law, Armin Hofmann, and Merrill C. Berman. Edited by Mildred Friedman. Published in conjunction with an exhibition at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis.Broadside to Billboard, Mildred Friedman
- Posters at the Turn of the Century, Robert Brown
- Function and Abstraction in Poster Design, Dawn Ades
- The Russian Film Poster: 1920-1930, Alma Law
- Thoughts on the Poster, Armin Hofmann
- Collecting Graphic Art, Merrill C. berman and Alma Law
- Plates
- Biography
- Bibliography
- Lenders to the Exhibition
- Acknowledgments
- Credits
- Index
Artists include Josef Albers, Alexandre Alexeiff, Victor Ancona, Jean Arp, Theo Ballmer, The Beggarstaffs, Peter Behrens, Anatoly belsky, Henryk Berlewi, Lucien Bernhard, Max Bill, Adolf Boehm, Grigory Borisov, Max Burchartz, Jean Carlu, A. M. Cassandre, Ivan Chermayeff, Seymour Chwast, Austin Cooper, Walter Cyliax, Wilhelm Deffke, Alexander Deineka, Robert Delaunay, Fortunato Depero, Walter Dexel, Theo van Doesburg, Marcel Duchamp, Fritz Ehmcke, Hermann Eidenbenz, Vasili Emilov, Shigeo Fukuda, Alexei Gan, Pierre Gauchet, April Greiman, Hector Guimard, John heartfield, Hannah Höch, Armin Hofmann, Ludwig Hohlwein, Vilmos Huszar, Marcel Janco, E. McKnight Kauffer, Gustav Klutsis, Oscar Kokoschka, Helmut Kurtz, Anton Lavinsky, Bart van der Leck, El Lissitzky, Charles Loupot, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Kasimir Malevich, Herbert Matter, Vladimir Mayakovsky, C. O. Müller, Josef Müller-Brockmann, Josef Maria Olbrich, Nikolai Prusakov, Tom Purvis, Paul Rand, Man Ray, Paul Renner, Alexander Rodchenko, Alfred Roller, Peter Röhl, Yakov Rukhlevsky, Emil Ruder, Xanti Schawinsky, Fritz Schleifer, Oskar Schlemmer, Paul Schuitema, Kurt Schwitters, Mart Stam, Stenberg Brothers, Niklaus Stoecklin, Ladislav Sutnar, Karl Teige, Jan Tschichold, Tristan Tzara, Henry van de Velde, Massimo Vignelli, Wolfgang Weingart, Hendrikus Wijdeveld, Tadanori Yokoo, Ilia Zdanevitch, and Piet Zwart among others.
Selected from his superb collection by Merrill Berman himself, this book features a richly diverse group of artists and styles linked by their “forward-looking” posture and visual “punch.” All of the major European avant-garde movements, which flourished between the two World Wars, are well-represented. As with Berman’s entire collection, the exhibition demonstrated a “personalized” cut through 20th Century visual culture “authored” by a collector with an extremely keen and knowledgeable eye. Rather than acquiring only important names (although the collection has more than its share of these, as well), Berman has considered the “aesthetic” aspect of each work and its historical context in deciding whether to add it to his collection. Berman is best known as a collector of graphic design—both the final printed works and the original art works used in their creation—and his collection consists of well in excess of 20,000 pieces.