Bold Graphic Design by László Moholy-Nagy

By: John DoeMay 13, 2016

Published by Expressionist artist, composer, and art critic Herwarth Walden, Der Sturm (The Storm [1910–32]) documented the early 20th-century avant-garde in Germany. Walden was interested in art, music, theater, and literature, and the interconnection between those disciplines. Der Sturm, originally published weekly, covered the visual arts, and also included fiction, poetry, cultural criticism, and political essays. The magazine became well known for the inclusion of woodcuts and linocuts, including works by Guggenheim collection artists Marc Chagall,Vasily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Oscar Kokoschka, Franz Marc, László Moholy-Nagy, and others. After establishing the magazine, Walden, who also ran a bookshop, founded Galerie Der Sturm in 1912. There, he exhibited works by many of the same artists featured in the magazine. He often showed pieces by artists from the Futurist, Cubist, and Dada movements, and exhibited work by many women artists. Walden began focusing more on the work of Eastern European artists in the 1920s. In 1922, Moholy-Nagy participated in his first exhibition at the Galerie Der Sturm—a show that presented the newest Constructivist trends. Later, Moholy-Nagy designed several covers for Der Sturm. After the gallery closed in 1924, publication of the magazine decreased to quarterly issues, and ceased entirely in 1932 after Walden left Germany following the rise of the Nazi Party. The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Library Special Collections does not have a complete set of all the issues of Der Sturm, but some covers, among other rare publications, will be on view during Moholy-Nagy: Future Present, which opens on May 27, 2016.