Czech out this L'Enfant Terrible

May 9, 2012 8:33 AM

Karel Teige was a major figure in the Czech avant-garde; a writer, designer, typographer and collagist.
He was a member of Devětsil and later joined the Prague Surrealist group with Toyen and Jindrich Styrsky.
Here are some of his Book Covers of the 1920- and 1930's and 1926 he made ABECEDA with each letter posed by the dancer Milca Mayerová. Here is a video reconstruction of the dance moves.
Teige died in 1951 of a heart attack, said to be a result of a ferocious Soviet press campaign against him as a 'Trotskyite degenerate,' his papers were destroyed by the secret police, and his published work was suppressed for decades. The Central European Review has some articles on his work.
posted by adamvasco (5 comments total)

"Plugin required" -- How do I install it?
posted by pracowity at 8:45 AM on May 9, 2012

Here is Vimeo link for the 2000 reconstruction.
posted by adamvasco at 10:11 AM on May 9, 2012

Very interesting—thanks, adamvasco. I first saw Teige’s alphabet in the Redstone Press’ book ABZ, but the collages/photomontages in the first link and the book covers are all new to me.
posted by misteraitch at 1:34 PM on May 9, 2012

Hey, awesome, I was an editor on the book in your second link; it was a companion to this exhibition catalogue at LACMA in 2002, which also featured Teige (you can see at least some of the images if you search for his name on the Look Inside feature). The Getty also published a good collection of Teige's writings around the same time.

Thanks for the post, adamvasco -- great to see this stuff online!
posted by scody at 2:56 PM on May 9, 2012 [1 favorite]

oops, I think the link to the exhibition catalogue should be this one.
posted by scody at 2:58 PM on May 9, 2012 [1 favorite]