Title: Die Kunstismen [Les Ismes de l´art, The Isms of Art]
Authors and editors: El Lissitzky and Hans Arp
Typography: El Lissitzky
Publishers: Eugen Rentsch Verlag, Erlenbach-Zürich München Leipzig (1925), Lars Müller Publisher, Zürich (1990)
Format: 48 pages, 26.2 x 20.7 cm, German, English, French, hard cover
ISBN (reprint from 1990): 978-3-9067-0028-1
Die Kunstismen [Les Ismes de l’art, The Isms of Art], designed and published by El Lissitzky and Hans Arp in 1925, covers avant garde art developments from 1914 to 1924 with a groundbreaking layout and typography. This surprising collection of “isms” ranks among the most important publications on avant-garde art in the 1920s. The book is filled with black-and-white photos and text in German, French, and English. This publication begins with definitions by well-known artists of the various movements, or forms of art, of the period. They range from Cubism, Futurism, Expressionism, Abstract Art, through Metaphysicians, Suprematism, Simultanism, Dadaism, Purism, Neoplasticism, Merz, Proun, Perism, Constructivism, to Abstract Film. The section is followed by reproductions illustrating each movement.