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ALEXEY BRODOVITCH (1898-1971)
25
•
BAL BANAL. 1924.
21
1
/
4
x26
1
/
2
inches, 54x67
1
/
2
cm.
Condition A: minor abrasions at edges. Paper.
Brodovitch was a key figure in the development of 20th century graphic design. Born in Russia, he
emigrated to Paris where he first distinguished himself as a graphic designer, working for a host of
prestigious clients such as
Aux Trois Quartiers
,
Arts et Metiers Graphiques
,
Cahiers d’Art
and the restau-
rant
Prunier
. His designs won him 5 awards at the 1925 Art Deco exhibition. In the early 1930s he
moved to New York, where he eventually became the art director for Harper’s Bazaar. In that position
he hired A. M. Cassandre (as well as other top European designers like Man Ray and Herbert Bayer)
to design covers for the magazine. He was also responsible for nurturing and developing young Ameri-
can talents such as Richard Avedon. This extremely rare poster is Brodovitch’s first published work, the
result of winning a poster design competition to advertise a ball for Russian émigrés in Paris. The
image is reflective of the Parisian art movements of the period, swinging between Cubism and the
newborn Surrealism. Andy Grundberg cleverly analyzes it as “suggestive of both the influences on him
and of his own future directions. The graphics, light to dark inversion of its mask shape, type and
background not only suggest the positive negative process of photography but also symbolically repre-
sents the process of masking; one trades one’s identity for another, contrary one” (Brodovitch p. 24).
[10,000/15,000]