57 Facts About Alexey Brodovitch

Alexey Vyacheslavovich Brodovitch was a Belarusian-American photographer, designer and instructor who is most famous for his art direction of fashion magazine Harper's Bazaar from 1934 to 1958.

Alexey Brodovitch's father, Cheslau or Vyacheslav Brodovitch, was a respected physician, psychiatrist and huntsman.

Alexey Brodovitch had no formal training in art through his childhood, but often sketched noble profiles in the audience at concerts in the city.

At the start of World War I at the young age of 16, Alexey Brodovitch abandoned his dream of entering the Imperial Art Academy and ran away from home to join the Russian army.

Alexey Brodovitch took a job painting houses, while his wife Nina worked as a seamstress.

Alexey Brodovitch was exposed to everything from Dadaism from Zurich and Berlin, Suprematism and Constructivism from Moscow, Bauhaus design from Germany, Futurism from Italy, De Stijl from the Netherlands, and the native strains of Cubism, Fauvism, Purism and Surrealism.

On nights and weekends away from the Ballets Russes, Alexey Brodovitch began sketching designs for textiles, china, and jewelry.

Alexey Brodovitch worked part-time doing layouts for Cahiers d'Art, an important art journal, and Arts et Metiers Graphiques, an influential design magazine.

Alexey Brodovitch had the rare opportunity of having influence over the look of the magazine as there was no art director.

Alexey Brodovitch gained public recognition for his work in the commercial arts by winning first prize in a poster competition for an artists' soiree called Le Bal Banal on March 24,1924.

Alexey Brodovitch remained proud of this poster throughout his career, always keeping a copy of it pinned to his studio wall.

Alexey Brodovitch continued to gain recognition as an applied artist due to his success at the Paris International Exhibit of the Decorative Arts in 1925.

Alexey Brodovitch was aware that many of the customers were fairly traditional in their tastes, so he balanced out his modern designs with classical Greek references.

Alexey Brodovitch was commissioned by the Parisian publishing house La Pleiade to illustrate three books: Nouvelles by Alexander Pushkin, Contes Fantastiques by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, and Monsieur de Bougrelon by Jean Lorrain.

Alexey Brodovitch embraced technical developments from the spheres of industrial design, photography, and contemporary painting.

Alexey Brodovitch later instilled this same curiosity in his students, encouraging them to use new techniques like the airbrush, industrial lacquers, flexible steel needles, and surgical knives.

In September 1930, Alexey Brodovitch moved to Philadelphia with his wife and son to take the job.

Alexey Brodovitch began teaching advertising design, creating a special department devoted to the subject.

Alexey Brodovitch's task was to bring American advertising design up to the level of Europe's, which was thought to have a far more modern spirit.

Alexey Brodovitch's teaching technique, on the other hand, was unlike any other the students had been exposed to.

Alexey Brodovitch would bring into class French and German magazines to examine the pages with his students, explaining the artist's work or technique.

Alexey Brodovitch did not teach in the conventional sense, but rather compelled his students to discover one's inner, creative resources.

In 1933, Alexey Brodovitch added the Design Laboratory to the classes he offered.

Alexey Brodovitch shared the Bauhaus belief that you needed to educate the whole individual by directing his or her attention to a variety of modern solutions in their graphic projects.

Alexey Brodovitch's department came to be known as a 'prep school' for agencies and magazines around the country.

Alexey Brodovitch knew right away that Brodovitch would be the one to transform the magazine into a real revival of Vogue, where she had started her career.

Alexey Brodovitch eagerly returned to Philadelphia and assigned his students apprenticing at his Van Pelt Street studio to make two dummy issues of the magazine.

Frances MacFadden, Bazaar's managing editor for much of Alexey Brodovitch's tenure, explained his working method:.

Typically, Alexey Brodovitch would begin his layouts by designing the layouts as illustrations by hand.

Alexey Brodovitch used forms in the photographs or illustrations as a cue for how to handle the shape of the text.

For example, Alexey Brodovitch once used fashion photographs sent via radio from Paris to New York in blurry forms to communicate this new way of sharing information.

Alexey Brodovitch was sensitive to the fact that color was relatively new in magazines, with laborious preparation and high costs.

Alexey Brodovitch applied color to his layouts expressively, often choosing to use colors bolder than might be seen in the real world.

In terms of photography, Alexey Brodovitch had a distinct feel for what the magazine needed.

Alexey Brodovitch favored on-location fashion photography as opposed to the studio shots normally used in other fashion publications.

Alexey Brodovitch urged his photographers to look for jarring juxtapositions in their images.

Alexey Brodovitch was known to push this idea even further by adding film sprocket borders to photographs at times.

Alexey Brodovitch often emphasized spatial illusions, using type and photographs to create multiple perspectives within a space.

Alexey Brodovitch would create versions of small movie stills or spreads in which women were supposed to see themselves rather than the model.

In 1949, Alexey Brodovitch collaborated in the production of the revolutionary publication Portfolio.

Alexey Brodovitch wanted to put out a magazine that focused solely on art and design, but was at the same time an outstanding example of design itself.

Alexey Brodovitch was responsible for sorting through the articles and illustrations to create the spreads.

Inside Portfolio, Alexey Brodovitch promoted features devoted to respected artists and designers, contributed articles on vernacular design, and made wildly imaginative layouts.

Between 1935 and 1937, Alexey Brodovitch photographed several ballet companies, including the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, during their visits to New York on world tours.

The style in which Alexey Brodovitch photographed deviated from the sharp, straight photography popular at the time.

Alexey Brodovitch released a book of these photographs in 1945, titled simply Ballet, through a small New York publisher.

Alexey Brodovitch photographed with a Contax 35mm camera, no flash, and with a slow film speed.

Already suffering ill health, Alexey Brodovitch was plunged into an acute state of depression over the death of his wife, Nina.

Alexey Brodovitch received a small Minox camera from an old student, Ben Rose, visiting him at Manhattan State Hospital.

Alexey Brodovitch slipped the camera in an old box of Pall Mall cigarettes and discreetly began to photograph his fellow patients.

Alexey Brodovitch was so ill that he would be back before the end of the day.

Alexey Brodovitch often lost the little freelance work he was able to scrounge up due to his unwillingness to compromise with the clients.

Alexey Brodovitch moved into my building at Union Square in New York with his son Nikita.

Alexey Brodovitch came to virtually every Design Laboratory workshop session and invited many of the famous in the fields of design and photography.

Alexey Brodovitch's mind remained sharp and true to his beliefs during those last years in New York City.

Alexey Brodovitch loved New York and I had to make him leave to go to his brother in France, as he was wasting away.

In 1982 the exhibition "Hommage a Alexey Brodovitch" was held at Grand-Palais, Paris.