Synopses & Reviews
This volume explores the creative transformation which shook the foundations of European culture during the first four decades of the twentieth century—a revolution which encompassed fields as wide-ranging as visual art, theatre, literature, photography, design, music, and architecture.
Breaking the Rules brings these distinct movements together for the first time in order to explore the rich tradition of exploiting the printed medium that helped to define the creative change of the age—and foster our contemporary understanding of avant-garde culture.
Breaking the Rules draws upon the British Librarys unrivalled collection of artists books, manifestos, little magazines, literary manuscripts, sound recordings, and posters from across Europe in order to explore the rapid exchange of ideas through printed matter that marked the avant-garde movement—and led to its presence in cities as diverse as London, Brussels, Munich, Zurich, Florence, Rome, Barcelona, Copenhagen, Warsaw, Prague, Tbilisi, Budapest, and Belgrade, among others. Including remarkable items like the notebooks and corrected proofs of Finnegans Wake and excerpts from an oral history interview with David Gascoyne recalling the Surrealist group in 1935 Paris—all beautifully reproduced with over ninety full-color images—as well as articles about more than thirty European and Russian cities describing their locations particular significance to the avant garde, this volume is essential reading for anyone fascinated by the power of change inherent in the printed image and word.
About the Author
Stephen Bury was librarian of the Chelsea School of Art from 1985-2000 and is currently head of European and American collections at the British Library.
Table of Contents
Introduction
The Manifesto
The Livre dartiste and the Artists Book
The Avant Garde and the Little Magazine
The Avant-Garde Photo-Book
Legacy
Cities
Baltic States
Barcelona
Belgrade
Berlin
Brussels
Bucharest
Budapest
Copenhagen
Cracow
Florence
Kharkiv
Kyiv
Leiden
Lisbon
Madrid
Milan
Munich
New York
Paris
Prague
Rome
St Petersburg and Moscow
Tbilisi
Vienna
Vitebsk
Warsaw
Weimar
Zurich
Timeline
Bibliography
Index