In Memoriam: Jean-Louis Cohen (1949–2023)

Aleksandr Deineka (Russian, 1899–1969)
Poster: Prevratim Moskvu v obraztsovyi sotsialisticheskii gorod proletarskogo gosudarstva (We Will Turn Moscow into a Model Socialist City
of the Proletarian State), 1931
Lithograph, 57″ × 6' 10 1/2″ (144.8 × 209.6 cm)
Formerly Merrill C. Berman Collection;
now The Museum of Modern Art, New York (585.2018)

With the sudden passing of Jean-Louis Cohen, the field has lost a leading light, an inspiration, and a generous soul—a teacher in the truest sense of the word.

Aleksandr Deineka’s poster pictured above was among the first to enter my collection and I always considered it a highlight. It was an honor that Professor Cohen agreed to write about it for MoMA’s 2018 Engineer, Agitator, Constructor catalogue. Situating the poster between the reality of Moscow in 1931 and its aspirations, the essay (which can be seen here) exemplifies Cohen’s erudition and exacting scholarship.

An installation shot of our loans to Cohen’s Building a New World: Amerikanizm in Russian Architecture, 1861–1991 at the Canadian Centre for Architecture is below, followed by a selection of works from the collection that depict aspirational, representational, and actual building in the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 1930s. The last, featuring Mies van der Rohe’s glass skyscraper model of 1922, serves as a heartfelt thank you from Adrian Sudhalter to “JLC” for his unforgettable Mies seminar of fall 1997.

Eight Russian posters from the collection on view in
Building a New World: Amerikanizm in Russian Architecture, 1861–1991, Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montréal (November 13, 2019–July 26, 2020) Photo courtesy Juliet Koss
The original closing date of the exhibition on April 5, 2020 coincided
with the first days of the pandemic lockdown. This prevented
the return of the loans until September 17, 2020.

Aleksei Gan (Russian, 1889–1942)
Sovremennaia arkhitektura (Contemporary architecture, known as SA)
Left: subscription booklet, 1927
Letterpress, 10 1/4 x 6 3/4” (25.8 x 17.5 cm)
Right: subscription brochure, 1928
Letterpress 15 x 11 1/4” (38.1 x 28.6 cm), folded

Periodical covers: Stroitel'stvo Moskvy (Building Moscow), 1929
Artists include: Vasili Elkin (no. 2), Gustav Klutsis (nos. 2, 3), El Lissitzky (no. 5), Vladimir and Georgii Stenberg (no. 7), Nikolai Prusakov (no. 8),
Solomon Telingater (no. 10), Nikolai Sedelnikov (no. 11)
Each: Lithograph, 11 5/8 x 9” (29.5 x 22.9 cm)

Iakov Chernikhov (Russian, born in Pavlograd, Ukraine. 1889–1951)
Above: Teatral'naia ob'yemno konstruktivnaia postanovka
(Theatrical volumetric constructive production), c. 1931
Ink and pencil on paper, 9 7/8 x 12 1/4” (25 x 31 cm)
Below: architectural fantasies, early 1930s
Both: gouache on paper, 4 1/8 x 4 1/8 (10.4 x 10.4 cm)

Boris Ignatovich (Russian, 1899–1976) 
Photographs of 1929, 1933, and 1937
Gelatin silver prints (printed in 1960s)
Left: 23 5/8 x 18 1/2” (60 x 47 cm)
Middle: 9 7/8 x 6 5/8” (25.2 x 16.7 cm)
Right: 9 5/8 x 6 3/8” (24.3 x 16.1 cm)
Building pictured far right: Academic Drama Theater 
named after M. Gorky, Rostov-on-Don, Moscow, completed 1935.

El Lissitzky (Russian, 1890–1941)
Announcement brochure (front, middle, and back) for the book series
Neues Bauen in der Welt (New building in the world).
Vienna: Verlag Anton Schroll, c. 1930
Letterpress, 11 3/8 x 8 3/4” (28.9 x 22.2 cm), folded

Left: Nikolai Dolgorukov (Russian, 1902–1980)
Untitled, c. 1930–1931
Cut-and-pasted gelatin silver prints and gouache on paper,
6 1/16 x 8 5/16” (15.3 x 21.1 cm)
Right: Aleksandr Rodchenko (Russian, 1891–1956)
Cover of the periodical Novyi Lef (New Lef), no. 7 (July 1928)
Letterpress, 8 7/8 x 6” (22.5 x 15.2 cm)

Left: Vasilii Elkin (Russian, 1897–1991)
Maquette for book cover: De la construction d'habitations, c. 1930
Cut-and-pasted gelatin silver prints and gouache on paper,
7 7/8 x 6 1/8” (20 x 15.6 cm)
Building pictured: Moisei Ginzburg’s Gosstrakh
apartment building, Moscow, completed 1926.
Right: Nikolai Sedelnikov (Russian, 1905–1994)
Maquette for periodical cover: Sovetskaia arkhitektura
(Soviet Architecture), no. 1–2 (1931)
Cut-and-pasted halftone prints and gouache on paper,
11 7/8 x 8 1/2” (30.2 x 21.6 cm)

Mikhail Razulevich (Russian, 1904–1993)
Proof for book cover: D. Mikhailov, Novyi gorod (New city)
Moscow-Leningrad: Young Guard, 1931
Lithograph, 8 x 5 1/4” (20.5 x 13.5 cm)
Building pictured: model of Mies van der Rohe’s unrealized
Friedrichstrasse skyscraper, 1922.

August 17, 2023