PIET ZWART: TYPOTEKT
Arthur A. and Elaine Lustig Cohen
Arthur A. and Elaine Lustig Cohen: PIET ZWART: TYPOTEKT. New York: Ex Libris, 1981. First edition. Stapled printed French-folded wrappers. 8 pp. 9 black and white images. Illustrated checklist of 41 items. Catalog design and typography by Elaine Lustig Cohen. A fine copy.
7 x 10 well-illustrated exhibition catalog with 8 pages featuring 41 items. A very useful reference volume and sought-after artifact from Cohen and Elaine Lustig Cohen's legendary bookstore Ex-Libris.
“. . . I didn’t know the terms, I didn’t know the methods, I didn’t even know the difference between capitals and lower case letters.” – Piet Zwart
Zwart referred to himself as Typotekt, a combination of the words typographer and architect. To a large extent this term did indeed express Zwart's conception of his profession -- the architect building with stone, wood, and metal; the graphic designer building with typographic material and other visual elements. Le Corbusier defined a house as a machine for living, and in the same sense Zwart’s typography could be called a "machine for reading."
Ex-Libris catalogues have proven themselves to be a consistently invaluable reference for folks interested in 20th-Century Modernism and the related art movements of the Bauhaus, Futurism, Dada & Surrealism, Avant-Garde, Graphic Design, Architecture, Theater, Poster Design, Expressionism, Modern American and European Art Movements, and any other ISM that might tickle your fancy. But if you've read this far, you already knew that, didn't you?
Including period examples of printed material and graphic documentation related to typography, poster design, reviews, brochures, books, photographs etc by some of the leading artists of the movement and it's influences including Guillaume Apollinaire; Andre Breton, Marcel Duchamp, Eluard, George Grosz,, Huelsenbeck, Kurt Schwitters, Tristan Tzara, Piet Zwart, Man Ray, Rodchenko, El Lissitzky, Moholy-Nagy, Walter Gropius, Herbert Bayer, The Bauhaus; DaDa; Max Ernst; Wassily Kandinsky; Paul Klee; El Lissitzky; Posters and Poster Reference; Periodicals; Documentary; Russian and Soviet Avant-Garde; Surrealism and so much more.
Ex Libris Rare Books was founded in 1973 by Elaine Lustig-Cohen and her husband Arthur A. Cohen (1928-1986). She was a graphic designer of no small renown, and he was a theologian, novelist, art and literary critic, who wrote extensively on Modern Art. The couple dealt in important and rare printed material and graphic documentation of International 20th-Century art. Much of their early inventory is now in Museums and international private collections. Many items that in these illustrated catalogues are impossible to find today, making these catalogues invaluable to collectors, dealers and scholars alike. They remain exceptional research tools overflowing with important objects and information, include scholarly listings, descriptions, photographs and (1980's) prices of all kinds of early 20th-Century ephemera including posters, letterheads, magazines, reviews, brochures, books, stationery, correspondence, posters, advertisements and much more. You have been warned.