Diattaart Blog

Alexey Brodovitch was an twentieth century Russian/ American painter and photographer who was modern in his photography. Alexey Brodovitch was born in Oligotchi, Russian Empire in the year 1898.

His family was well off as his father was a doctor. Unfortunately his family had to flee their homeland to war and the upcoming Bolshevik revolution. Eventually the family would settle in Paris, France.

Brodovitch took a wife and found himself a job for the first time in life painting houses. He would take art classes and through his connections with other artists also earned money as the painter of ballet backgrounds. During this period he also would design textiles and jewelry.

The artist taught many well known modern artists keys to graphic design and advertising. In the United States most advertising art was very romantic in nature and linked to ideas from centuries past. Artists like Jessie Wilcox Smith were very popular. Brodovitch helped to usher in a modern era of American design that studied advertising examples that were popular in Europe, rather than the romantic realism.

Some of his students included famous photographers Diane Arbus and Richard Avedon.

In this clip a brief bio on Alexey Brodovitch with some examples of his work:

Alexey Brodovitch passed away in 1971.

Price range information: Works range from $5,000 to $50,000.

The artist was among the first to incorporate text and photos in magazine layouts. He was also an outstanding painter of landscapes in an abstract style. Add to his resume the many students who went on to have professional art careers and Brodovitch was a true master artist of the 20th century.

If you enjoy photographs and enjoy looking at photographs in sequences be sure and check out my post on Duane Michals. Michals uses photographs to tell short visual stories.

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