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Book Cover
Book
Author Margolin, Victor, 1941- author

Title The struggle for utopia : Rodchenko, Lissitzky, Moholy-Nagy, 1917-1946 / Victor Margolin
Published Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1997
©1977

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Location Call no. Vol. Availability
 MELB  709.041 Mar/Sfu  AVAILABLE
Description xiii, 261 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
Contents 1. Visions of the Future: Rodchenko and Lissitzky, 1917-1921 -- 2. Constructivism in Germany: Lissitzky and Moholy-Nagy, 1922-1923 -- 3. Inventing the Artist-Constructor: Rodchenko, 1922-1927 -- 4. The Politics of Form: Rodchenko and Moholy-Nagy, 1922-1929 -- 5. Representing the Regime: Lissitzky and Rodchenko, 1930-1941 -- 6. Design for Business or Design for Life? Moholy-Nagy, 1937-1946
Summary . Focusing on the difficult relationship between art and social change, Margolin brings important new insights to our understanding of the avant-garde's role in a period of great political complexity
He follows them and their affiliations through the 1920s and 1930s in Moscow, Berlin, and Chicago, documenting their contributions to utopian architecture, Constructivist ideology, industrial design, photography, visual communication, and design education. Each essay features one or two of the artist-designers and shifts from one medium to another through a chronological narrative that begins with the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia and ends in Chicago just after World War II
Nowhere is this project more evident than in the lives of Alexander Rodchenko, El Lissitzky, and Laszlo Moholy-Nagy whose careers covered a broad range of artistic practices and political situations. The remarkable continuity between the various forms of their work stems from their belief that art had to be extended beyond the aesthetic sphere. But given that the social situations they confronted changed radically in their lifetimes, their operative strategies were severely tested and underwent significant revisions. Through close readings of their work as it relates to the situations in which they were active, Victor Margolin examines the way these three artists negotiated the changing relations between their social ideals and the political realities they confronted
Following World War I, a new artistic-social avant-garde emerged with the ambition to engage the artist in the building of social life
Analysis Art and society History 20th century
Avant-garde (Aesthetics) History 20th century
Geschichte 1917-1946
Lissitzky, El Philosophy
Modernism (Art)
Moholy-Nagy, László Philosophy
Rodchenko, Aleksandr Mikhaĭlovich Philosophy
Notes Includes index
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Subject Lissitzky, El, 1890-1941 -- Philosophy.
Lissitzky, El, 1890-1941.
Moholy-Nagy, LaÌszloÌ, 1895-1946 -- Philosophy
Moholy-Nagy, László, 1895-1946 -- Philosophy.
Moholy-Nagy, László, 1895-1946.
Rodchenko, Aleksandr MikhaÄ-lovich, 1891-1956 -- Philosophy
Rodchenko, Aleksandr Mikhaĭlovich, 1891-1956 -- Philosophy.
Rodchenko, Aleksandr Mikhaĭlovich, 1891-1956.
Art and society -- History -- 20th century.
Avant-garde (Aesthetics) -- History -- 20th century.
Constructivism (Art)
Modernism (Art)
LC no. 96034090
ISBN 0226505154 (cloth) (acid-free paper)
0226505162 (paper) (acid-free paper)
9780226505152 (cloth) (acid-free paper)
9780226505169 (paper) (acid-free paper)