• Gutenberg Goes Overboard: How the Russian Futurists Defied Convention in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction

    Author(s):
    Christine Jacobson (see profile)
    Date:
    2020
    Subject(s):
    Books, History, Art, Russian, Twentieth century, Russian literature
    Item Type:
    Conference paper
    Conf. Title:
    Harvard-Yale History of the Book Conference
    Conf. Org.:
    The Yale Program in the History of the Book and the History of the Book Seminar at the Mahindra Humanities Center, Harvard University
    Conf. Loc.:
    New Haven, CT
    Conf. Date:
    April 19, 2016
    Tag(s):
    Book history, Russian and Soviet art, Early 20th-century Russian art
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/exx5-5p64
    Abstract:
    This paper examines two approaches I argue most successfully transformed the conventional book and in doing so, challenged Walter Benjamin’s paradigm for art in the “age of mechanical reproduction.” These includes the neo-primitivist approach, in which artists looked to a pre-Gutenberg era for inspiration, and the ferroconcrete approach which looked to redefine the artist’s relationship to typography. To illustrate my argument, I examine the works of two Russian Futurists, Aleksei Kruchenykh who typifies the primitivist approach, and Vasily Kamensky, who invented the ferroconcrete approach.
    Metadata:
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    3 years ago
    License:
    All Rights Reserved

    Downloads

    Item Name: pdf gutenberg_goes_overboard_how_the_russian.pdf
      Download View in browser
    Activity: Downloads: 98