Exhibition "Alexey Brodovitch: From Diaghilev to Harper’s Bazaar" is organized by Harper’s Bazaar magazine and Garage Center for Contemporary Culture and confined to the 15th anniversary of Harper`s Bazaar in Russia.
Alexey Brodovitch (1898–1971) is a pioneer of graphic design who invented a prototype of today's fashion magazines. In the early 1930s, Brodovitch made a revolution in the world of magazines by integrating images with text on the pages of Harper’s Bazaar. Brodovitch can be rightfully considered as the father of advertising and fashion photography and the tutor of photographers Irving Penn and Richard Avedon.
A Russian born, Brodovitch joined the first wave of immigrants and started his career as a decorator in Sergey Diaghilev's theater in Paris. His job was not just to create posters and decorations for the Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. He also took photos of artists behind the stage during rehearsals and try-ins. His first success in design was a prize at poster contest for charitable ball party: the young artist from Russia took the Grand Prix hustling away nobody but Pablo Picasso.
In 1934, Alexey Brodovitch accepted an offer to take the office of Harper’s Bazaar art director in New York and stayed there for several decades – till 1958. In America, he introduced a brand new minimalist style emerged in Europe in 1920s under the influence of avant-garde movements and art deco style in industrial design. Upon Brodovitch initiative, Harper’s Bazaar collaborated with his friends Salvador Dali, Marc Chagall, Raoul Dufy, Joan Miró, Jean Cocteau, the master of posters and type designer Adolf Kassandr, photographer Man Ray, and many others. Besides, Brodovitch founded a network of Design Laboratories which offer a truly invaluable apprenticeship for design people, the alma mater for many American designers and photographers.
Exhibition "Alexey Brodovitch: From Diaghilev to Harper’s Bazaar" at Garage Center for Contemporary Culture is the first time the oeuvre of Alexey Brodovitch is exhibited in Russia. Surprisingly, the works of this graphic design trend-setter have never been exposed in Russia in full scale.
