Toys of the Avant-garde:
4 October 2010-30 January 2011
by Juan Bordes, José Lebrero Stals, and Carlos Pérez
Published by Museo Picasso Málaga / Ediciones El Viso, Málaga, 2010. First edition. Very good hardcover, illustrated boards, no dust jacket as issued. Tight binding, solid spine, clean unmarked text, bumped edge & small tears to edges of first 3 pages. Large 8vo, profusely illustrated in color, exhibition catalog, 385 pages.
In the revolutionary ferment of the early twentieth century, when avant-garde artists dreamed of transforming society through aesthetic innovation, a remarkable cultural phenomenon emerged: modernist masters turned their radical visions toward childhood, creating toys, furniture, and books that would shape young minds for the utopian future they envisioned. This comprehensive exhibition catalog documents over 600 toys, objects, and books made by dozens of artists of the early 20th century, presenting an extraordinary collection that includes creations by Picasso, Eames, Marcel Duchamp and Joan Miró among others. The first quarter of the 20th century saw the birth of a series of political and social ideas whose purpose was to break away from previous formulas and set up new forms of government, and these artists eagerly hoped that their aesthetic proposals would be transferred to society and permeate everyday life, thus contributing to the advent of a new lifestyle.
The catalog reveals how Picasso turned a television table into a toy horse for his grandson Bernard, the puppets that Klee and Schlemmer made for their own children, or the travelling circus orchestrated by Calder, alongside works made by some of the most influential artists from the 20th century and includes objects from various movements such as Constructivism, Futurism and even Bauhaus. Curated by Carlos Pérez and MPM artistic director José Lebrero Stals, with scholarly texts exploring how early 20th-century artists and writers became interested in familiarizing children with the shapes and ideas of modern art, and in projecting their own ideals for the future upon them, this extraordinary publication captures a moment when play became politics, when toys became manifestos, and when childhood itself was reimagined as the laboratory for human transformation. For collectors of modern art, design history, and cultural studies, this represents the definitive documentation of modernism's most intimate revolution—the radical redesign of childhood itself.
Loc: E2
Toys of the Avant-garde:
4 October 2010-30 January 2011
by Juan Bordes, José Lebrero Stals, and Carlos Pérez
Published by Museo Picasso Málaga / Ediciones El Viso, Málaga, 2010. First edition. Very good hardcover, illustrated boards, no dust jacket as issued. Tight binding, solid spine, clean unmarked text, bumped edge & small tears to edges of first 3 pages. Large 8vo, profusely illustrated in color, exhibition catalog, 385 pages.
In the revolutionary ferment of the early twentieth century, when avant-garde artists dreamed of transforming society through aesthetic innovation, a remarkable cultural phenomenon emerged: modernist masters turned their radical visions toward childhood, creating toys, furniture, and books that would shape young minds for the utopian future they envisioned. This comprehensive exhibition catalog documents over 600 toys, objects, and books made by dozens of artists of the early 20th century, presenting an extraordinary collection that includes creations by Picasso, Eames, Marcel Duchamp and Joan Miró among others. The first quarter of the 20th century saw the birth of a series of political and social ideas whose purpose was to break away from previous formulas and set up new forms of government, and these artists eagerly hoped that their aesthetic proposals would be transferred to society and permeate everyday life, thus contributing to the advent of a new lifestyle.
The catalog reveals how Picasso turned a television table into a toy horse for his grandson Bernard, the puppets that Klee and Schlemmer made for their own children, or the travelling circus orchestrated by Calder, alongside works made by some of the most influential artists from the 20th century and includes objects from various movements such as Constructivism, Futurism and even Bauhaus. Curated by Carlos Pérez and MPM artistic director José Lebrero Stals, with scholarly texts exploring how early 20th-century artists and writers became interested in familiarizing children with the shapes and ideas of modern art, and in projecting their own ideals for the future upon them, this extraordinary publication captures a moment when play became politics, when toys became manifestos, and when childhood itself was reimagined as the laboratory for human transformation. For collectors of modern art, design history, and cultural studies, this represents the definitive documentation of modernism's most intimate revolution—the radical redesign of childhood itself.
Loc: E2
