Bookvica

[AN AMERICAN EXHIBITION IN THE USSR] Promyshlennaia estetika SSHA [i.e. Industrial Design in the USA]

Item #2809

[Moscow, 1967]. 64 pp.: ill. 28x21 cm. In original illustrated wrappers. Very good. No title page, as issued.

This catalog represents an exhibition designed by George Nelson and Company for showing in the Soviet Union, beginning in Moscow in February 1967. The exhibition was commissioned by the United States Information Agency. According to a foreword by President Lyndon B. Johnson, it was the ninth American exhibition held in the USSR. Such a copy was given to every visitor to the exhibition.

During the Khrushchev Thaw, the USSR and the USA signed an agreement providing for the exchange of cultural experiences. As part of this agreement, the Americans proposed holding an exhibition of Soviet achievements in New York and a display of American achievements in Moscow. Each country was free to decide what to show – no censorship, no restrictions. In 1959, the American National Exhibition opened in Moscow. It was the first American exhibition in the USSR and it marked the beginning of exhibition activity at Moscow's Sokolniki Park. The 1959 American exhibition impressed Soviet visitors by showcasing a wide variety of items and devices that were accessible to the general public in the United States. This 1967 exhibition echoed the first one, but the main focus wasn’t on the objects themselves – it was on their designers.

Soviet visitors were introduced to the biographies of such well-known designers as Henry Dreyfuss, Raymond Loewy, Walter Dorwin Teague, Charles Eames, Eliot Noyes, George Nelson, F. Eugene Smith, Arthur BecVar, as well as the firms Sundberg-Ferar, Peter Muller-Munk; Latham, Tyler & Jensen; Dave Chapman, Goldsmith & Yamasaki; Lippincott & Margulies.

The covers of Industrial Design magazine have been published, along with directories of educational institutions offering industrial design programs. The catalog discusses specialized education for industrial designers which emerged in the USA in the 1920s.

On the last page, there is a list of the companies that took part in the exhibition, as well as a list of the copyright holders of the photographs.

Worldcat shows the only copy located in MoMA.

Price: $750.00