[Art] Brodovitch, Alexey. Ballet

New York: J.J. Augustin, (1945). First edition (one of 500 copies). Oblong 8vo. Text by Edwin Denby. Illustrated with 104 reproductions of photographs by Brodovitch. Publisher's quarter grey cloth over boards; in original printed French fold dust-jacket, wear along extremities, repairs to verso spine ends, abrasions on flaps from when opened, small tape remnants on same; all edges trimmed; in rare original paper-covered slip case, blue printed cover and spine label, light rubbing along edges. Roth, The Book of Books Seminal Photographic Books of the Twentieth Century, pp. 110-113

A handsome first edition with the rare original slip case of Alexey Brodovitch's important and highly influential photobook on the Ballet Russe de Monte Carol. "Critic Jane Livingston, who drafted Brodovitch as one of the more unlikely members of what she dubbed photography's New York School, speculates that only a few hundred copies of Ballet were ever printed, and that most of them were distributed as gifts to the artist's inner circle rather than to bookstores. But if the book's audience was limited, it was also quite select, and Ballet had enormous impact among the design and photo cognoscenti...more than half a century later, the book still looks radical, still feels exciting." (Roth, p. 110)

This lot is located in Philadelphia.

From the Special Collections and Rare Book Collection at University of the Arts’ Libraries, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

[Art] Brodovitch, Alexey. Ballet