THE COLLECTED WRITINGS OF ALVIN LUSTIG
Alvin Lustig
Alvin Lustig: THE COLLECTED WRITINGS OF ALVIN LUSTIG. New Haven: Holland R. Melson, Jr., 1958. First edition. Published in an edition of 600 copies. Octavo. Printed paper covered boards. Glassine wrappers. 94 pp. Essays. Glassine age-toned with a couple of tiny closed tears. The nicest copy we have handled: a fine copy in nearly fine Publishers glassine. Rare thus.
5.5 x 8.75 hardcover book with 94 pages of writings by Alvin Lustig. Introduction by Philip Johnson. Cover portrait by Maya Deren. Designed and published by Holland R. Melson, Jr. via a grant by Elaine Lustig [Cohen] in the memory of Alvin Lustig, a faculty member of the School of Art and Architecture at yale University between 1951 to 1954.
“In discussions of values in art the positiveness of his assertions occasionally suggested egotism; he would submit himself to it fully and with humility. I have heard people speak of the "Lustig style" but no one of them has been able to tell me, in fifty words or five hundred, what it was. Because each time, with each new book, there was a new creation. The only repetitions were those imposed by the physical media.
“I often wish that Lustig had chosen to be a painter. It is sad to think that so many of his designs must live in hiding on the sides of books on shelves. I would like to have his beautiful Mallarme crystal or his Nightwood abstraction on my living room wall. But he was compelled to work in the field he chose because he had had his great vision of a new realm of art, of a wider social role for art, which would bring it closer to each and every one of us, out of the museums into our homes and offices, closer to everything we use and see. He was not alone, of course, in this; he was, and is, part of a continuing and growing movement. His distinction lay in the intensity and the purity with which he dedicated his genius to his ideal vision.”— James Laughlin
“By the time he died at the age of forty in 1955, [Lustig] had already introduced principles of Modern art to graphic design that have had a long-term influence on contemporary practice. He was in the vanguard of a relatively small group who fervently, indeed religiously, believed in the curative power of good design when applied to all aspects of American life. He was a generalist, and yet in the specific media in which he excelled he established standards that are viable today.
“Lustig created monuments of ingenuity and objects of aesthetic pleasure. Whereas graphic design history is replete with artifacts that define certain disciplines and are also works of art, for a design to be so considered it must overcome the vicissitudes of fashion and be accepted as an integral part of the visual language.” -- Steven Heller