Brodsky & Utkin: The Complete Works

by Lois Nesbitt (editor)

Alexander Brodsky and Ilya Utkin are the best known of a loosely organized group of Soviet artists known as "Paper Architects," who designed much but built little in the early days of Glasnost, in the late 1980s. Many of their elaborate etchings, in which they depicted outlandish, often impossible, structures and cityscapes of allegorical content, were collected in our 1990 book Brodsky & Utkin. Now, with the addition of forty-three new and never-before-published prints, we are pleased to announce this updated edition.

In their designs, by turns funny, cerebral, and deeply human, Brodsky & Utkin borrow from Egyptian tombs, Ledoux's visionary architecture, Le Corbusier's urban master plans, and other historical precedents, collaging these heterogeneous forms in learned and layered scrambles. Underlying the wit and visual inventiveness is an unmistakable moral: that the dehumanizing architecture of the sort seen in Russian cities in the 1980s and 1990s, and elsewhere around the globe, takes a sinister toll.

A new preface assesses the works of Brodsky & Utkin and reminds us that the greatest art is often born of adversity. Beautifully printed in 300-screen dry-trap duotones by the Steinhauer Press, Brodsky & Utkin is a book for artists, architects, and collectors alike.

Author Biography: Lois Nesbitt is a writer on art and architecture who lives in New York.

Genres: Art, Architecture, Nonfiction

128 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1991

Reviews

[Marilyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I discovered the work of these two architects last summer at the Tate Modern in London, a few etchings were exposed, in an almost hidden room, named "poetry and dream". It has been the highlight of my visit there, and I was totally fascinated by the etchings, looking like twisted dream images. When I look up on the internet afterward I was very pleased to see this book was just about to be re-edited :) It is indeed very nice, but unfortunately with the limited page side, it cannot do justice to the real etchings, where one can distinguish every single line (and there are so many of them !!)

[jw468 · Rating 5 out of 5]

2003 edition

Simply amazing! One of the most fascinating books I’ve read. The best way I can think of to describe this book is as a cross between the early work of Lebbeus Woods and Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities. If you enjoy the work of either one of those artists, you’re likely to also enjoy this collection of etchings. The introductory material effectively sets up the context of the work.

[Jeff Lewonczyk · Rating 5 out of 5]

I couldn't be happier with these images or the impulse behind them - symbolic fictional architecture intended for the page, created as a creative outlet within the stultifying context of the late Soviet era, when architects had very little opportunity to build interesting things. The humor, poetry and insight that fuel the drawings give them a timeless quality, while the introductory essays do a great job of grounding them in their original time and place. I'll be poring over this one many times in the years to come.

[nerveblot · Rating 4 out of 5]

My only complaint is that I wish the book was physically larger; while the reproductions are excellent and include all the detail... the detail is extremely fine.

[Sonntag · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant Pseudointellectual Self-Pleasure Architecture-

This pseudointellectual self-pleasure architectural prints are oxymoronically spiritual, poetic, and humorous. They are comparable to the literary works by Honoré de Balzac (please excuse the pseudointellectual in me talking). Etching is the traditional way of massive produce architectural drawings, and when the artists/architects adapted the technique and used it for their work they cunningly distorted the time, and set the work apart from their contemporaries. Which is simply brilliant!
The themes of their work are usually dark, unlike the Constructivists whose work are overdosed with naive optimism towards technologies and future, I sense Paper Architects’ disillusionment of the present and future through symbolic reference of eerie past-alike. Nevertheless, the results are haunting and beautiful in despite of deprivation.



Below are images I took of the book for my Amazon review, please see link below and let me know if they are helpful to you (by pressing yes or no button), thank you for your comment and support:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/review/R3LK0...

[Hall's Bookshop · Rating 4 out of 5]

Members of the group of Soviet architects who met in Moscow in the 1970s, known as the Paper Architects because of the difficulty of getting any building that deviated from the Soviet utilitarian style actually built, Brodsky and Utkin produced some extraordinary etchings of imaginary cityscapes, that will remind some of Terry Gilliam's Brazil. A review will not really do justice to a book whose strength is in the reproductions of the pair's prints and etchings, so I encourage those interested in imaginary and imaginative, as well as slightly dark and oppressive, architecture to take a look at a quick google images search and see if it is your kind of thing. My own personal sense was, once I had seen one of these online, I had to buy the book. Which is now happily at home on my selves.

[Lucas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Members of the group of Soviet architects who met in Moscow in the 1970s, known as the Paper Architects because of the difficulty of getting any building that deviated from the Soviet utilitarian style actually built, Brodsky and Utkin produced some extraordinary etchings of imaginary cityscapes, that will remind some of Terry Gilliam's Brazil. A review will not really do justice to a book whose strength is in the reproductions of the pair's prints and etchings, so I encourage those interested in imaginary and imaginative, as well as slightly dark and oppressive, architecture to take a look at a quick google images search and see if it is your kind of thing. My own personal sense was, once I had seen one of these online, I had to buy the book. Which is now happily at home on my selves.

[Nick Upton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Coming from what is pretty much a completely ignorant perspective on architecture, I really enjoyed this book. I loved the fact that most of the sketches are hard concepts and not necessarily tainted by reality. They left a lot to the imagination, and trust me, every concept brought up a lot of different scenarios to consider, not to mention questions on society!