Kobro and Strzemiński: Avant-Garde Prototypes (2017) [English, Spanish]

“Kataryna Kobro (1898-1951) and Władysław Strzemiński (1893-1952) are among the silent protagonists of the European avant-gardes, to which they contributed by both fostering and questioning the legacy of modernism with a plastic and theoretical oeuvre that was fertile as it was complex. Dedicated to experimentation on pure forms–Kobro fundamentally in sculpture and Strzemiński in painting–and closely related to international artistic movements like the Bauhaus, neoplasticism and constructivism, their work is pivotal for an understanding of abstract art in the Central Europe of the first decades of the twentieth century.”

With contributions by Jarosław Suchan, Christina Lodder, Gladys C. Fabre, Juan Manuel Bonet, and texts by Kobro and Strzemiński.

Publisher Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, and Muzeum Sztuki, Łódź, 2017
Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0 International License
ISBN 9788480265508, 8480265507
192 pages

Exhibition (Madrid)
Exhibition (Łódź)
Publisher
WorldCat

Kobro and Strzemiński: Avant-Garde Prototypes (English, 13 MB, PDF, Issuu)
Kobro y Strzemiński. Prototipos vanguardistas (Spanish, 13 MB, PDF, Issuu)

Philip Johnson, Mark Wigley: Deconstructivist Architecture (1988) [EN, ES, DE]

“This book presents a radical architecture, exemplified by the work of seven architects. Illustrated are projects for Santa Monica, Berlin, Rotterdam, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Paris, Hamburg, and Vienna, by Frank O. Gehry, Daniel Libeskind, Rem Koolhaas, Peter Eisenman, Zaha M. Hadid, Bernard Tschumi, and the firm of Coop Himmelblau” (from back cover)

Publisher Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1988
ISBN 087070298X, 9780870702983
104 pages

Review: Douglas Tallack (Paragraph, 1996).

Discussion: 25th anniversary debate (video, MoMA, 2013), report.
Analysis: Tina Di Carlo (PhD dissertation, 2016).
Commentary: Luke Fiederer (ArchDaily, 2017).

Exhibition
WorldCat

Deconstructivist Architecture (English, 1988, 20 MB)
Arquitectura deconstructivista (Spanish, 1988, 20 MB)
Dekonstruktivistische Architektur (German, trans. Frank Druffner, 1988, 20 MB)

John Elderfield: Kurt Schwitters (1985)

“Designed to accompany the Schwitters exhibitions in New York, London and Hanover, John Elderfield’s masterly study of Schwitters fulfils all the promise of his articles on that artist from the years 1969 to 1977 and surpasses any other academic work on the same subject in five major respects: first, in its attention to all phases of Schwitters’s work (the pre-1917 and post-1937 phases as well as the classically Merz period); second, in its judicious and balanced attention to all aspects of Schwitters’s multi-media work; third, in its refusal to reduce Schwitters’s artistic and theoretical work to one simple set of ideas or to privilege one mode of expression over another; fourth, in its generous sense of the rich artistic background (Cubism, Sturm, Dada, Constructivism) out of which Schwitters’s variegated work arose; and fifth, in its prodigious familiarity with the vast secondary literature dealing with the Modernist avant-gardes. The extent of Elderfield’s research is immensely impressive and the result of this is an authoritative, clearly-written book which combines a sure grasp of factual detail, a shrewd analytical sense vis-a-vis individual works, a complex understanding of the theoretical problems posed by Schwitters’s cpuvre and a fluid empathy with all of its levels. Quite apart from the 355 high-quality illustrations, the uniform excellence of Elderfield’s text makes the book indispensable for any serious student of German and European Modernism and effortlessly accessible to the non-specialist as well.” (Richard Sheppard’s 1986 review)

Publisher Thames and Hudson, London, 1985
ISBN 0500234264
424 pages
via MoMA

Reviews: Richard Sheppard (J Eur Studies, 1986), Dawn Ades (Burlington Mag, 1986).

Exhibition
WorldCat

PDF, PDF (106 MB)