Arkin, D[avid], editor and El Lissitzky, design.

[EL LISSITZKY – MODERNIST ARCHITECTURE] Arkhitektura sovremennogo zapada [The architecture of the contemporary West].

Moscow: IZOGIZ, 1932. Octavo (27 × 19 cm). Original embossed cloth over boards; 185, [2] pp. The original pictorial dust jacket rather worn and chipped; title toned and with pencil owner note; else very good. Item #54917

A celebratory overview of Western modernist architecture, with detailed analysis of the works of architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Walter Gropius, Richard Neutra, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Le Corbusier, Bruno Taut, and Ernst May, among others. The volume is illustrated with numerous photographs of architectural plans as well as finished constructions. The author, architectural and art historian David Arkin (1899–1957) published this work at a critical moment, when the official Soviet policy was starting to turn away from Western and early modernist examples. A professor at the Moscow Architectural Institute, he was accused of “cosmopolitanism” for publishing this work, though he managed to avoid deportation. The dust jacket and layout were designed by El Lissitzky.

Price: €500.00

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