The Small Utopia: Ars Multiplicata

From Futurism to Fluxus, virtually every twentieth-century avant-garde produced art multiples of some kind, whether to defuse the auratic power of the unique artwork, or to foster a more democratic art culture. The Small Utopia provides a thorough overview of this tendency, looking at Malevich's tea sets, Bauhaus textiles and toys, early audio multiples, Duchamp's readymades, films by Fischinger and Moholy-Nagy, Maciunas' Fluxus kits, Minimalist and Pop art multiples, artist's books and small press magazines, among other examples. Some of the field's finest scholars contribute to this volume, including Maria Gough on Russian Productivism; Elena Gigli on Giacomo Balla; Annette Malochet on Sonia Delaunay's Atelier Simultané; Karen Koehler on Bauhaus; Antonio Somaini on early sound art; Adina Kamien-Kazhdan on readymades; Marie Rebecchi on abstract cinema; Nicholas Fox Weber on Josef and Anni Albers; and Julia Robinson on Nouveau Realisme and Fluxus multiples. A superbly illustrated chronology rounds out this essential and handsome publication.