BRUNO MUNARI: DESIGN AS ART
Aldo Tanchis
Aldo Tanchis: BRUNO MUNARI: DESIGN AS ART. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1987. First English language edition [Originally published in Italian by Idea Books Edizioni, Milan, 1986]. A near fine minus hard cover book in a very good dust jacket with minor shelf wear to jacket. Interior unmarked and very clean. Out-of-print. Art Direction by Bruno Munari.
9.25 x 11.5 hard cover book with 140 pages and 360 illustrations, 90 in color. From the publisher: " . . . this book, itself designed by Munari, is the first comprehensive account of his total achievement. Here are the Unreadable Books (that told stories through the possibilities of typography, papermaking, and binding), Traveling Sculptures, Fossils of the Year 2000, Theoretical Reconstruction of Imaginary Objects, Original Xerographies, Negative Positives, and the famous Useless Machines of the 1930s (constructions for wagging the tails of lazy dogs, predicting dawn, making sobs sound musical) as well as numerous other works, some published for the first time.
- Preface by Andrea Branzi
- From Childhood to the 1930s
- Graphics, Theatre, Painting, Writing and Other Activities
- Art as Profession
- Towards an Art for Everyone
- Notes
- Bibiography
- Chronology
- Exhibitions by Bruno Munari
From the publisher's description of "Bruno Munari: DESIGN AS ART" (Penguin Books, Middlesex, 1966): "Bruno Munari was among the most inspirational designers of all time, described by Picasso as 'the new Leonardo'. Munari insisted that design be beautiful, functional and accessible'.