VISION IN MOTION

Laszlo Moholy-Nagy

Laszlo Moholy-Nagy: VISION IN MOTION. Chicago: Theobald 1947. Eighth printing. A fine hardcover book in a nearly fine dust jacket: very mild wear to edges. Rare thus. Book design and typography by the author. Out-of-print.

9 x11 hardcover book with 376 pages and 440 illustrations (11 in color). An exhaustive visual compendium of the modern movement, circa 1947. Includes many examples of Bauhaus and the New Bauhaus (Institute of Design) work (Marcel Breuer, Walter Gropius, Oskar Schlemmer, Herbert Bayer, etc.) "A seminal work . . . still of great value" (Karpel E986). Also Freitag 6628. Sharp p.90.

From the Book: "Of all the artists who have received world-wide recognition none is more versatile than Moholy-Nagy; and none is better qualified to write this blue-print of education through art. Pioneer participant in the great artistic and intellectual movements in Europe, Moholy-Nagy reveals here his rich experience as an educator and gives a summation of his philosophy upon which the educational program of the Institute of Design, Chicago, is founded. He clarifies the relationship of modern design, painting, literature, architecture, the cinema, science and industry. He makes the most thorough inquiry thus far attempted into the space-time reality of modern man and his emotional existence. A strong advocate of the interrelatedness of all human activities, Moholy-Nagy makes a passionate plea for the integration of art, technology and science. In the belief that the most forceful statements are provided by illustrations, the author amplifies his ideas lavishly with pictorial material. There is a large variety of media and subject matter such as industrial design and advertising art, contempora ry painting, sculpture, architecture, photography, photomontage, as well as collages, and motion pictures. The book provides the reader with a contemporary attitude toward life and a new insight into modern art. It is recommended for the layman and the connoisseur alike."

One of Chicago's great cultural achievements, the Institute of Design was among the most important schools of photography in twentieth-century America. It began as an outpost of experimental Bauhaus education and was home to an astonishing group of influential teachers and students, including Lazlo Moholy-Nagy, Harry Callahan, and Aaron Siskind.

This is a Bible of Modernism from one of the Bauhaus masters who relocated to Chicago before World War II and continued to teach his avant-garde theories of art and design. Walter Gropius: "I think this will be the leading book in art education." What more can I add?

Contents:

• Foreward
• Acknowledgement
• Introduction
• Analyzing the Situation/Vision in Motion
• New Method of Approach - Design for Life
• New Education - Organic Approach
• Integration - the Arts: Painting, Photography, Sculpture, Space-Time problems, Motion Pictures, Literature, Group Poetry
• A Proposal
• Index

The list of designers, photographers, architects and artists represented in this volume is a veritable rosetta stone of the 20th-century modern movement: Alvar Aalto, Berenice Abbot, Jean Arp, Willie Baumeister, Herbert Bayer, Max Bill, Marcel Breuer, Robert Brownjohn, Le Corbusier, Theo van Doesburg, Henry Dreyfuss, Naum Gabo, Morton Goldsholl, Juan Gris, Walter Gropius, Raoul Hausmann, Kasimir Malevich, Herbert Matter, Mies van der Rohe, Piet Mondrian, Richard Neutra, ben Nicholson, Paul Rand, Bernard Rodofsky, Ladislav Sutnar, Angelo Testa, James Prestini, Frank Lloyd Wright and many others.

Laszlo Moholy-Nagy (Hungarian, 1895-1946) was born in Bacsbarsod, Hungary. Injured during World War I, he turned to painting and made contact with the Budapest avant-garde in 1918. In 1922, Maholy-Nagy participated in the International Dada-Constructivist Congress in Weimar and began experiments in photography with his wife Lucia. Appointed master at the Bauhaus in 1923, he made his first film, Berliner Stilleden, in 1926. Although always a painter and designer, Moholy-Nagy became a key figure in photography in Germany in the 1920's. In 1928 Moholy-Nagy left the Bauhaus and traveled to Amsterdam and London. His teachings and publications of photographic experimentations were crucial to the international development of the New Vision. In 1937 he was invited to found the New Bauhaus in Chicago by the Association of Arts and Industries. Moholy-Nagy served as teacher and director there from 1937 until his death in 1946.

A sample spread from this volume can be viewed here.

Price: $250.00
PayPal Secure Payment

Domestic Shipping: $10.00