Eric Chaim Kline, Bookseller

Eric Chaim Kline, Bookseller

Von Kunst zur Gestaltung. Einführung in die moderne Malerei (From Art to Design. introduction Into Modern Painting)

Berlin: Arbeiterjugend-Verlag, 1925. First edition. Softcover. Octavo. 87(1)pp., xxiv plates. Original stiff wraps with modern design in color, gray lettering on cover, orange on spine; protected by modern mylar. Introduction, composed for younger readers, stressing difficulties for the "ascent" to master the task, promising that the view from the top will be glorious. Behne adds a brief address to critics, letting them know he expects their criticism, accusing him of implicating parallels to the liberation of the working class. Behne adds: Those who don't want to get stuck at the surface of art, will recognize, that the 'new art' is a fighter for the forthcoming socialism.

The book opens with a color-offset reproduction of Artur Segal's "Prismatic Construction," 1923, followed by text with quotes by Guyau: The Art – It's Tender, and Tolstoj: There is no particular Great Feat, which we have to perform. Our whole life ought to be a Great Feat. Art has to eliminate violence. The intricate text is illustrated with ten sepia-toned offset reproductions of classic and modern artwork and two diagrams, a color circle and a demonstration a light ray penetrating a prism; all sepia-toned. The appendix offers eight full pages with color chats, all reproduced in lithography, and sixteen b/w reproductions of modern artwork, all, except Umberto Boccioni's "Farewell" (lithograph), in offset reproductions. The artwork includes works by Kandinsky, Feininger, Schwitters, Eggeling, Lissitzky, Moholy-Nagy, Peri and others. The book includes one page listing titles published by the Arbeiterjugend-Verlag.

Text in German. Wraps with very light wear along edges. Some pages of block with light foxing in upper margins and of art plates at rear. Very good condition. Item #51983

Adolf Bruno Behne (1885–1948) was a German critic, art historian, architectural writer and art activist. He was one of the leading protagonists of the Avant Garde during the Weimar Republic. Behne was born in Magedeburg and studied architecture briefly, then art history. He was a member fo the Deutscher Werkbund and was influential in the Arbeitsrat für Kunst in 1918.

Price: $275.00

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