Item #20136 4 Dadaist Artist's Books on Hats by the Wronkow Brothers. Ludwig, George Wronkow.
4 Dadaist Artist's Books on Hats by the Wronkow Brothers
4 Dadaist Artist's Books on Hats by the Wronkow Brothers
4 Dadaist Artist's Books on Hats by the Wronkow Brothers
4 Dadaist Artist's Books on Hats by the Wronkow Brothers

4 Dadaist Artist's Books on Hats by the Wronkow Brothers

1957-1970. Ludwig & George Wronkow. Spiral bound. (4) remarkable handmade artist's books by German-Jewish brothers Ludwig and George Wronkow, who emigrated to America ( to New York) in 1938 and 1941 respectively. The books resemble spiral-bound notebooks and each is filled with highly-skilled, obsessive drawings, watercolors and collages centered around hats. The 4 artist's books here offered include: 1) Viel Lärm um alte Hüte ("Much Ado about Old Hats"), 1970. Approximately 12" x 9", spiral bound, 24 pp (some sides blank) of colored drawings and collage featuring folded, torn, cut and decorated NY Transit Authority tickets and transfers, with funny, handwritten rhyming texts in Gerrman. One of dozens of homemade books, all on the theme of HATS, that the two brothers exchanged with each other as gifts (and perhaps gave to others). This particular book was written and illustrated by Ludwig Wronklow (1900-1982), the older of the two brothers. Both were raised in Berlin and became journalists. The younger brother, George (1905-1989) worked as a journalist and art editor at the leftist Mosse-Verlag, and for Weltspiegel and the Berliner Tageblatt. He fled Germany for France in 1933 and after the German occupation, managed to escape via Spain and came to New York in 1941, where he worked for CBS and a number of German-language journals and papers, becoming a citizen in 1949. His older brother Ludwig (1900-1982) was more of an artist, caricaturist and cartoonist, and published thousands of his drawings in German journals and newspapers before 1933. He managed to flee Germany and arrived in America in 1938 where he took a job with the German emigrant paper Aufbau, eventually becoming one of its top directors. In Germany he was friendly with the Dadaists and even contributed cover drawings to a few of their books; 2) Das Grosse Deutsche Alphabet von A-Z unter besonderer berucksichtigung der verschiedensten Kopfbeduckungen ("The Big German Alphabet from A-Z with special consideration of headwear'), 1957. 11.5" x 8.75", within it a mounted hand-made chapbook measuring 5" x 3.75", with 26 hand-drawn and colored alphabet pages with short typed German couplets. Some of the original cloth-tape covering to spine is missing at larger pages, else very good. This one was written and illustrated by George Wronkow; 3) Der Unhut, Das Buch Wider den Hut ("The Unhat, the book against the hat"), 1969. Approximately 12 x 9, spiral bound, 24 pp (some sides blank) of colored drawings and collage, funny handwritten verses, some by Wronkow and some by more famous German authors. This one is by Ludwig Wronkow; 4) Das Buch Der Hüte ("The Book of the Hat"), 1962. Approximately 12 x 9, spiral bound, 24 pp (some sides blank) of colored drawings and collage, on the subject of hats and Man-HAT-tan, with subway maps fashioned as hats, etc. Delightful and whimsical. This one is also by Ludwig. An exceptional crop of hat-themed artist's books by the German-American Wronkow brothers, about whom a biography should one day emerge. Very Good +. Item #20136

Price: $5,000.00

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