László Moholy-Nagy

By Ellen Lupton Known for its bold sans-serif typefaces, crisp asymmetrical grids and clean use of negative space, the Bauhaus emerged as the forbearer of a new look—one that seized the tools of mass production in the creation of a radical new art. Today, just over 100 years after the Bauhaus’s opening in 1919, the school’s visual hallmarks have come to define modernity as it appears on the printed page.The official catalog for Letterform Archive’s inaugural gallery exhibition, Bauhaus Typography at 100 explores the school’s legacy in graphic and typographic design through artifacts of its own making—its books, magazines, course materials, product catalogs, stationery, promotional fliers and other ephemera. From the book’s beautifully designed pages, readers learn of typographic masters László Moholy-Nagy, Herbert Bayer and Joost Schmidt, who channeled Constructivism’s geometric forms and optimism for industry into printed vehicles for the school’s teachings. Here is where Bauhaus typography—its rejection of serifs and capitals, embrace of experimental alphabets, insistence on universal clarity, and innovation in layering and hierarchy—took its distinctive shape. The catalog also shines light on the Bauhaus’s lesser-known early forays into expressive lettering and illustration, also tracing the school’s immediate impact on seminal design movements such as the New Typography and, of course, on design practitioners working today. Lavishly illustrated, carefully researched and written, and accompanied by an in-depth introduction from noted Bauhaus expert, author and curator Ellen Lupton, Bauhaus Typography at 100 is a must-have for any fan of modern design.Hardcover280 pages | 500 imagesLetterform Archive Books, 20219.5 x 7.5 inchesISBN 9780998318097Typography, Bauhaus Design

Bauhaus Typography at 100

Edited by Walter Gropius and László Moholy-Nagy. A facsimile of the gorgeous Bauhaus edition of Malevich's classic treatise on Suprematism. Kasimir Malevich (1879–1935) debuted his new creative theory of basic geometric shapes with the publication of his Suprematist manifesto in 1915. He later published a follow-up entitled The Non-Objective World in 1927, which further elucidated his vision of an art that emphasized the “primacy of pure feeling.” With Suprematism, Malevich strove to move his artistic focus away from representation, choosing instead to evoke emotion through a fundamental grammar system of squares, circles and other basic shapes. Though he was not an official member of the Bauhaus, Malevich’s emphasis on simplified forms provided an important link between the school of design and the Suprematist movement.As part of the publisher’s ongoing Bauhausbücher series, Lars Müller’s facsimile edition of Malevich’s text is translated into English with the original design and typography. Hardcover102 pages | 92 black-and-white illustrations7 x 9 inchesLars Müller Publishers, 2021ISBN 9783037786642Bauhaus, Facsimile

Kasimir Malevich: The Non-Objective World (Bauhausbücher 11)

By Chris Blencowe and Judith Levine Photographs by Laszlo Moholy-Nagy The Greek island sequence montaged by László Moholy-Nagy into his legendary documentary Architects' Congress can be interpreted, like his provocative Photoplastiks, as a "message in a bottle" thrown into the sea that "might take decades for someone to find and read." Capturing the incomparable Greek light, it presents a compelling glimpse of the four days and nights in August 1933 when the elite of the European architectural and artistic avant-garde―in Greece for the 4th International Congress of Modern Architecture (CIAM)―took to the Aegean in a barely seaworthy "nut shell" that would bring them close to the brink of disaster. The "motley crew" included Le Corbusier, Fernand Léger, Amédée Ozenfant, Sigfried Giedion, Cor van Eesteren and Otto Neurath. Crucial to the success of the surreal odyssey were various members of the Greek avant-garde.Drawing on previously unpublished material―Moholy's poetically ironic letter to his wife, Sibyl, Ghika's candid memoirs of Le Corbusier and forensic examination of the architect's sketchbooks―the authors reconstruct the epiphanies, debates and, inevitably, estrangements at this critical moment in European history.Paperback200 pagesLars Müller Publishers, 20186.2 x 0.7 x 9.6 inchesISBN 9783037785669Artist Monograph, Architecture, Photography

Moholy's Edit: CIAM 1933: the Avant-Garde at Sea

Edited by Petra Eisele, Isabel Naegele, and Michael Lailach In 1929, Berlin’s Martin-Gropius-Bau launched the exhibition “New Typography.” László Moholy-Nagy, who had left Dessau the previous year and had earned a reputation as a designer in Berlin, was invited to exhibit his work together with other artists. He designed a room—entitled “Wohin geht die typografische Entwicklung?” (“Where is typography headed?”)—where he presented 78 wall charts illustrating the development of the “New Typography” since the turn of the century and extrapolating its possible future. To create these charts, he not only used his own designs, but also included advertising prints by colleagues associated with the Bauhaus. The functional graphic design, initiated by the “New Typography” movement in the 1920s, broke with tradition and established a new advertising design based on artistic criteria. It aimed to achieve a modern look with standardized typefaces, industrial DIN norms, and adherence to such ideals as legibility, lucidity, and straightforwardness, in line with the key principles of constructivist art. For the first time, this comprehensive publication showcases Moholy-Nagy’s wall charts which have recently been rediscovered in Berlin’s Kunstbibliothek. Renowned authors provide insights into this treasure trove by each contributing to this alphabetized compilation starting with “A” for “Asymmetry” and ending with “Z” for “Zukunftsvision” (“vision of the future”). By perusing through the pages and allowing a free flow of association, the typographical world of ideas of the 1920s avant-garde is once again brought back to life. Hardcover247 pagesVerlag Kettler, 20199.6 x 1 x 11.9 inchesISBN 9783862067541Artist Monograph, Graphic Design, Typography

Moholy-Nagy and the New Typography A-Z

By Oliver Botar Life in the digital economy of information and images enriches us but often induces a sense of being overwhelmed. Sensing the Future: Moholy-Nagy, Media and the Arts considers the impact of technology by exploring ways it was addressed in the practice of the Hungarian polymath artist László Moholy-Nagy (1895-1946), a prominent professor at the Bauhaus and a key figure in the history of Modernism. Moholy-Nagy felt that people needed guidance to cope with the onslaught of sensory input in an increasingly technologized, mediatized, hyper-stimulating environment. His ideas informed media theorists such as Walter Benjamin, John Cage, Sigfried Giedion, and Marshall McLuhan, who anticipated digital culture as it emerged. Should we then regard Moholy-Nagy as a pioneer of the digital? His aesthetic engagement with the technology/body problematic broached the notions of immersion, interactivity and bodily participation, innately offering a critique of today’s disembodiment. Was he then both a pioneer and a proto-critic of the digital? This book is intended to introduce this seminal figure of post-medial practices to younger generations and, by including responses to his work by contemporary artists, to reflect on the ways in which his work is relevant to artistic practice now. Having been highly praised by experts, this classic receives a second and slightly revised edition. Hardcover192 pages | 420 illustrationsLars Müller, 20238.25 x 11.75 inchesISBN 9783037787465 Design

Sensing the Future: Moholy-Nagy, Media and the Arts

Edited by Lars Müller "The handsome hardcover reprint is most valuable as a historical artifact."—A Daily Dose of Architecture Books When the Bauhaus moved to Dessau in 1924, it was finally possible to publish the first of the Bauhausbücher that Walter Gropius (1883–1969) and László Moholy-Nagy (1895–1946) had first conceived of in Weimar. The series was intended to give insight into the teachings of the Bauhaus and the possibilities it offered for incorporating modern design into everyday aspects of an ever-more-modern world. First in the series was Gropius’ International Architecture, an overview of the modern architecture of the mid-1920s and an early attempt to articulate what would come to be known as International Style architecture. In a brief preface, Gropius summarized the guiding principles he identified uniting the avant-garde around the world. But the real thrust of the book is visual, with an extensive illustrated section showing buildings in Europe and the Americas. According to Gropius, these illustrations show the “development of a consistent worldview” that dispensed with the prior decorative role of architecture and expressed itself in a new language of exactitude, functionality and geometry. Published for the first time in English, this new edition of the first of the Bauhausbücher is accompanied by a brief scholarly commentary. Presented in a design true to Moholy-Nagy’s original, International Architecture offers readers the opportunity to explore the Bauhaus’ aesthetic and its place in the world as Gropius himself was trying to define them. Hardcover108 pagesLARS MÜLLER PUBLISHERS, 20197 x 9 inchesISBN 9783037785843Bauhaus, Architecture

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László Moholy-Nagy

Bauhaus Typography at 100

Kasimir Malevich: The Non-Objective World (Bauhausbücher 11)

Moholy's Edit: CIAM 1933: the Avant-Garde at Sea

Moholy-Nagy and the New Typography A-Z

Sensing the Future: Moholy-Nagy, Media and the Arts

Walter Gropius: International Architecture (Bauhausbücher 1)

Shop at Neue László Moholy-Nagy

Bauhaus Typography at 100

Kasimir Malevich: The Non-Objective World (Bauhausbücher 11)

Moholy's Edit: CIAM 1933: the Avant-Garde at Sea

Moholy-Nagy and the New Typography A-Z

Sensing the Future: Moholy-Nagy, Media and the Arts

Walter Gropius: International Architecture (Bauhausbücher 1)

Shop at Neue
László Moholy-Nagy