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Mauer dreamstory
Agata Pyzik . The following is an early draft from Agata Pyzik’s excellent book-length debut, Poor but Sexy: Culture Clashes between East and West. I’m about halfway through writing a review of it,...
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The skyscraper in the Old World
Manfredo Tafuri The Sphere and the Labyrinth (1979) . Perhaps no better way exists of grasping what the American skyscraper is not than by studying how European culture has attempted to assimilate and...
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Grigorii Barkhin, Izvestiia newspaper building in Moscow (1926-1928)
. Some have noted the formal similarities between the original conception of Grigorii Barkhin’s Izvestiia newspaper building in Moscow and Walter Gropius’ proposed Chicago Tribune tower in Chicago....
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The transformation of the Aubette in Strasbourg (1926-1928)
Theo van Doesburg Het Bouwbedrijf: Vol. 6, № 6 March 1929, pgs. 116-122 . . . The mass, the opposition of the colors, the play of light give depth to certain surfaces, instill infinite values in all...
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The European reception of Frank Lloyd Wright
The influence of Frank Lloyd Wright on the architecture of Europe J.J.P. Oud Wendingen July, 1925 . Although I am deeply convinced of the relativity of all appreciation in art, where contemporaries or...
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Et tu, Slavoj? Must Žižek really be “destroyed”?
. Continuing its proud tradition of accepting literally every panel proposal submitted to it, no matter how poorly written or conceived, this year’s Left Forum at Pace University brings you “Žižek...
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Aleksandr Rodchenko, Lenin workers’ club in Paris (1925)
My friend Agata Pyzik, author of the excellent Poor but Sexy: Culture Clashes in Europe East and West (Zer0: 2014), recently uploaded some pictures from her visit to Moscow. One of them shows her...
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1914 in the history of Marxism
Chris Cutrone Platypus Review May 6, 2014 . At the Platypus Affiliated Society’s annual International Convention, held at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago April 4-6, 2014, Chris Cutrone...
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Soviet workers’ clubs in the 1920s
The workers’ club Anatole Kopp Town and Revolution, 1917-1932 (1966) . First, we must establish just what was meant by a “club” in the U.S. S.R. of the twenties, a country in which the word had...
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Le Corbusier’s “contemporary city” (1925)
. The existing congestion in the center must be eliminated. The use of technical analysis and architectural synthesis enabled me to draw up my scheme for a contemporary city of three million...
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Architectural compositions by Iakov Chernikhov, 1924-1931
Iakov Georgievich Chernikhov was one of the most outstandingly original artists of a period which produced many great talents. He was born on December 17, 1889 in the Ukrainian provincial town of...
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The future of Enlightenment
Thoughts on “Universalism and its discontents” . . Last Thursday an online discussion of “Universalism and Its Discontents” took place at noon via livestream. It was the first in what is projected to...
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Lukács’ abyss
Jeremy Cohan Platypus Review 38 August 1, 2011 . At the Marxist Literary Group’s Institute on Culture and Society 2011, held on June 20–24, 2011 at the Institute for the Humanities, University of...
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László Moholy-Nagy, painting and photography
The following two texts focus on the Hungarian avant-garde painter and photographer László Moholy-Nagy. “Moholy-Nagy,” written by his countryman Ernő Kállai, principally concerns Moholy-Nagy’s early...
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The politics of preservation: Shukhov radio tower in Moscow, 1920-1922
Originally published by Metropolis magazine back in March 2014. . Moscow’s Shukhov radio tower, an iconic work of early Soviet constructivism, has lately become a subject of intense debate within...
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On the first socialist tragedy
Andrei Platonov . It is essential not to thrust oneself forward and not to get drunk on life; our time is both better and more serious than blissful delight. Everyone who gets drunk is sure to be...
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Pour Hegel: Marx’s lifelong debt to Hegelian dialectics
. By now it should be obvious to anyone who has looked at Karl Marx’s entire corpus, both published and unpublished works, that the philosophy of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel was an abiding influence...
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Response to Peter Frase on identity politics
. Jacobin has published a short reflection by Peter Frase on identity politics, with the humorous title “Stay Classy.” Unfortunately, the title is probably the best thing about it. The rest of it is a...
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World War I: The SPD left’s dirty secret
Benjamin Lewis Weekly Worker 1016 June 26, 2014 . The following article by Ben Lewis provides a fairly neat overview of “left” renegacy within the SPD in the run-up to, and aftermath of, Germany’s...
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Cruising past: Moscow’s forgotten gay history
Agata Pyzik Calvert Journal July 17, 2013 . In honor of Pride Week, which just passed here in New York, I thought I’d repost this excellent article by Agata Pyzik. Agata is a journalist who writes for...
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