Edited by El Lissitzky and Hans Arp. Binding and typographical design by El Lissitzky. Eugen Rentsch Verlag, Erlenbach-Zurich, Munich and Leipzig, 1925. 26.4 x 20.6 cm. XI, 48 PP. Text in German, French and English. With 76 photo plates with works by Arp, Archipenko, Braque, Dix, Max Ernst, Feininger, Grosz, Kandinsky, Leger, El Lissitzky, Malevich, Marc, Moholy-Nagy, Molzahn, Picabia, Picasso, Schlemmer, Tatlin. Reference: Bolliger I/278 (highly rare!), Lang Konstruktivismus, p. 118 ff.
"The book by Lissitzky and Arp 'Die Kunstismen. 1914-1924' is an argumentative and didactic work on avant-garde art between the years 1914 and 1924. It provides agitational information in the text about, among other things, Dada, Futurism, Cubism, Constructivism, Merz, Suprematism, Neo-Plasticism, Proun. The concise texts are written from a constructivist perspective. For stylistic tendencies that ran counter to this, only scorn and derision remained. Thus it says of Expressionism: 'From Futurism and Cubism, the false hare (in German= minced meat), the metaphysical German beefsteak, Expressionism was hacked.' [...] The book is very subtly designed out of function by Lissitzky. [...] Of particular importance to the book's design are the 'instructional panels' that have been constructed for each keyword. They visualise the terms. With this design, Lissitzky paved the way to the photographically mounted book." (Lothar Lang: Konstruktivismus und Buchkunst, Leipzig 1990)
