Calder: An Autobiography with Pictures (1966)

“Born in Philadelphia at the turn of the century, Alexander Calder was the son and grandson of renowned sculptors. Originally trained as an engineer, he turned to art in his twenties. From the early days of his famous wire circus performances all the way into the 1960s, marked by free floating forms of his stabile and mobile sculptures, Calder unfolds the story of his life. With the informality he was loved for, he talks as if he were reminiscing with his friends around a table with a carafe of wine, a loaf of bread, and a cut of cheese in front of them. And like wine, bread, and cheese these memoirs have genuineness, substance, and flavor. Numerous snapshots from his family album, many drawings by himself and his friends, letters, mementos, and a large selection of photographs of his works complete this rare document.” (from the book jacket, edited)

Publisher Pantheon Books, 1966
285 pages

PDF (72 MB, no OCR)

+ Watch Le Cirque de Calder, a film by Carlos Vilardebó, 18 min, 1961, on UbuWeb.

Walter Gropius (ed.): The Theater of the Bauhaus (1925–) [DE, EN]

“The Bauhaus movement was one of this century’s most daring experiments in arts education, and its influence on architecture, design, and the visual arts is well known. Many of its most important ideas are revealed in Bauhaus writings about theatrical performance and performance spaces. Originally published in Germany in 1925 — at the height of the Bauhaus movement’s influence– The Theater of the Bauhaus collects writings from some of the movement’s most important figures and describes a theater stripped of history, moralism, scenery, and, for that matter, narrative itself. The Bauhaus group believed traditional theater to be little more than a vehicle for propaganda, with its “peep show stage” separating spectators from performers. They rejected as well the theater of ridicule and satire practiced by the Dadaists and Expressionists. In place of both traditional drama and the avant-garde that lampooned it, Oskar Schlemmer and his Bauhaus associates created an abstract theater of movement, color, light, form, and sound-language would be added later, once the stage had been purged of its “literary encumbrance.” They believed that humanity’s essential nature–freed from history, tradition, class, and nationality–would find expression in theatrical works that incorporated pantomime, masks, dance, and acrobatics.”

Contents: Walter Gropius: Introduction; Oskar Schlemmer: Man and Art Figure; Laszlo Moholy-Nagy: Theater, Circus, Variety; Farkas Molnar: U-Theater; Oskar Schlemmer: Theater (Bühne); Translator’s Note.

Publisher Albert Langen, Munich, 1925
Volume 4 of Bauhausbücher series
84 pages
via Bibliothèque Kandinsky

English edition
Translated by Arthur S. Wensinger
Publisher Wesleyan University Press, 1961
ISBN 0819560200
110 pages

Die Bühne im Bauhaus (German, 72 MB, via Bibliothèque Kandinsky, added on 2014-8-17, updated on 2022-4-13)
Die Bühne im Bauhaus (German, PDF, JPG, in Heidelberg U Library, added on 2019-7-7)
The Theater of the Bauhaus (English, trans. Arthur S. Wensinger, 1961, 6 MB, updated on 2016-10-15)

See also other titles in Bauhaus Books series.

Karel Teige: O humoru, clownech a dadaistech, I-II (1928-30/2004) [Czech]

Dvousvazková kultovní práce vůdčího teoretika české avantgardy je unikátní studií o dadaismu.

První svazek obsahuje kapitoly “pojednávající o humoru, o světském a neliterárním dadaismu a o poezii cirkusu, music-hallu a lunaparku”. Druhý svazek “kreslí svět moderní básně, svět, který voní; podává genezi dadaismu přehledem vývoje od Baudelairea až k Tzarovi, charakteristiku hnutí dada i surrealistické revoluce a v závěru pokouší se formulovat teorii a estetiku nové poezie pro všecky smysly, podloženou fakty korespondence a analogie mezi jednotlivými obory ‘umění’..”, to, co “je jádrem nové estetické teorie, která se zve poetismem”. S doslovem Jiřího Brabce.

O humoru, clownech a dadaistech, I: Svět, který se směje
Originally published by Odeon, Prague, 1928, 112 pp
Publisher Akropolis, Prague, 2004
ISBN 8073040425
114 pages

O humoru, clownech a dadaistech, II: Svět, který voní
Originally published by Odeon, Prague, 1930, 240 pp
Publisher Akropolis, Prague, 2004
ISBN 8073040530, 9788073040536
244 pages

review (Vol. 1, Andrea Jochmanová, Literární noviny, in Czech)
review (Vol. 2, Jan Nejedlý, Čro Vltava, in Czech)

publisher

PDF (Vol. I)
PDF (Vol. II)