book (design) story #700
lucas lichtenhan:
konstruktivisten
kunsthalle basel, 1937
printer: benno schwabe & co, basel
size: 21 x 15 cm
photographer: eidenbenz, spreng
designer: jan tschichold
book (design) story number 700 !!! good reason to celebrate with something special – the important and rare exhibition catalogue: "konstruktivisten"!
this major exhibition of constructivist art was shown in basel in 1937, ...
... at a time when just a few miles north this kind of modernist painting and scuplture was denounced as "degenerate art" by the nazi regime.
the catalogue design is in a most elegant "new typography" style – all-lowercase sansserif throughout.
the illustrations are printed single-sided on on coated paper: here we see paintings by theo van doesburg, ...
... el lissitzky, and sophie taeuber-arp.
after a couple of pages left empty for "notes" the ad section starts with an ad for the studio eidenbenz, basel.
the "konstruktivisten" catalogue – and also the famous exhibition poster – was designed by jan tschichold (1902-1974) who had lived in basel after leaving germany in 1933. no designer is credited, but tschichold is mentioned as a lender of several paintings to the exhibition.
below the 1937 catalogue flanked by two other swiss exhibition catalogues from 1935 and 1938 (see stories 380 and 149), all designed by tschichold with similar covers: asymmetric composition, all-lowercase sansserif, artists' names listed vertically.
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