josef chladek

on photobooks and books

Karl Blossfeldt - Urformen der Kunst (3rd edition), Ernst Wasmuth A.G., 1935, Berlin

 

Hardcover cloth bound with dust jacket. While the first and second editions shared the same layout and dust jacket, this third edition features a newly designed dust jacket. Additionally, the previously unused blank pages were repurposed to print images, making the book thinner and more affordable

Urformen der Kunst ("Archetypal Forms of Art") is one of the most striking books in photographic history, as well as one of the most popular, running into numerous editions over the decades. It was a key model for the 'typologies' school of contemporary German photography, but Blossfeldt's photo-book masterpiece was not a conceptual work of art. It was, like so much German photography of this period, pedagogical in nature, as much founded on the arts-and-crafts ethos as Bauhaus principles. ... In 1925 his work caught the attention of Karl Nierendorf, a banker and collector of avantgarde art. Nierendorf encouraged Blossfeldt to exhibit his photographs in art exhibitions, and edited the work for this publication, as well as writing the introduction, Nierendorf undoubtedly had a significant influence in ensuring that the book was constructed with formal rigour and philosophical consistency that move it far beyond the scientific record. ... The semi-abstract nature of Blossfeldt's work ensures its modernist credentials, although in reality his inspiration is much more rooted in the nineteenth-century German tradition of natural philosophy. Nevertheless, however one chooses to label these images, their popularity has remained constant, ever since the book's first edition. (from Parr/Badger - The Photobook: A History Volume I)

Pages: XVI + 96
Place: Berlin
Year: 1935
Publisher: Ernst Wasmuth A.G.
Size: 25 x 32 cm (approx.)







 Karl Blossfeldt Urformen der Kunst

Karl Blossfeldt Urformen der Kunst

 Karl Blossfeldt Urformen der Kunst

Karl Blossfeldt Urformen der Kunst

 Karl Blossfeldt Urformen der Kunst

Karl Blossfeldt Urformen der Kunst




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Other books by Ernst Wasmuth A.G. (see all)


 

Hardcover cloth bound with dust jacket. While the first and second editions shared the same layout and dust jacket, this third edition features a newly designed dust jacket. Additionally, the previously unused blank pages were repurposed to print images, making the book thinner and more affordable

Urformen der Kunst ("Archetypal Forms of Art") is one of the most striking books in photographic history, as well as one of the most popular, running into numerous editions over the decades. It was a key model for the 'typologies' school of contemporary German photography, but Blossfeldt's photo-book masterpiece was not a conceptual work of art. It was, like so much German photography of this period, pedagogical in nature, as much founded on the arts-and-crafts ethos as Bauhaus principles. ... In 1925 his work caught the attention of Karl Nierendorf, a banker and collector of avantgarde art. Nierendorf encouraged Blossfeldt to exhibit his photographs in art exhibitions, and edited the work for this publication, as well as writing the introduction, Nierendorf undoubtedly had a significant influence in ensuring that the book was constructed with formal rigour and philosophical consistency that move it far beyond the scientific record. ... The semi-abstract nature of Blossfeldt's work ensures its modernist credentials, although in reality his inspiration is much more rooted in the nineteenth-century German tradition of natural philosophy. Nevertheless, however one chooses to label these images, their popularity has remained constant, ever since the book's first edition. (from Parr/Badger - The Photobook: A History Volume I)

Pages: XVI + 96
Place: Berlin
Year: 1935
Publisher: Ernst Wasmuth A.G.
Size: 25 x 32 cm (approx.)