Some readers will know Karel Teige as a progressive graphic designer, photographer, constructivist typographer and member of the Prague interwar avant garde. Others may know his books, writing and book designs. I count myself a follower of Teige, who worked in parallel with Ladislav Sutnar, but I was not familiar with his cultural criticism, nor Rab-Rab Press—which has published the first English translation of Teige’s 1936 The Marketplace of Art in two volumes, one that is the translation, and the other featuring a critical overview, inquiries and extensive commentaries. Originally published in Czech, The Marketplace of Art is the record of Teige’s artistic, political and theoretical work.
Written in 1936, following the assumption of Nazi rule in Germany and in the context of the rising conservative right-wing culture, The Marketplace of Art is a critical response to the submission of contemporary art to fascist and Stalinist ideology. Teige discusses this reaction as something deeply inscribed into the bourgeoisie, which he claims is a culture “not able to create and inspire any other kind of art besides a hollow and pompous academism or sentimental kitsch.”
Cover by Till Gathmann using detail from John Heartfield’s “Five Finger” election poster
Teige brought a Marxist analysis of the art market to explain how culture is tied with capitalist institutions. “In today’s warmongering culture of authoritarian neoliberalism, where the contemporary art market is run by oligarchs, Karel Teige’s radical critique of the art market is more relevant than ever,” says the publisher.
Edited and introduced by Sezgin Boynik and Joseph Grim Feinberg, the book is published in collaboration with the Contradictions/Kontradikce Journal in Prague. The commentary volume includes commissioned essays by Zbyněk Baladrán, Dave Beech, Jana Ndiaye Berankova, Michel Chevalier, Esther Leslie, John Roberts and Paul Wood, as well as an inquiry on The Marketplace of Art with didactic responses from František Dryje, Tomáš Hříbek, Rea Michalová, Šimon Svěrák and Roman Telerovský.
Translated by Greg Evans, the publication was designed by Till Gathmann, and has been printed in a run of 800 copies.
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