GRAPHIC ARTS: USA [Amerikanskaia a grafika] by Geismar, Tom. [Logo] U.S.I.A., Ivan Chermayeff, Paul Rand, Saul Bass, Herb Lubalin, Rudolph de Harak, Tony Palladino, Bob Gill, Leo Lionni, Gene Federico, Jack Wolfgang Beck, Goerge Tscherny, Ben Shahn, Walter Allner, John Alcorn, Ray Komai, Seymour Chwas - 1963

Washington DC: United States Information Agency/Printed gratis by The Amalgamated Lithographers of America, Local No. 1, New York, 1963. First Edition, First Printing. Staplebound booklets and loose-leaf graphics in Cardboard Portfolio. Very Near Fine/Fair. Issued as a portfolio for visitors to the exhibition, "Graphic arts - USA,", a wildly successful United States federal government propaganda effort in the form of a traveling exhibition of American graphic arts talent which toured the Soviet Union in 1963. 31 cm. Quarto size Illustrated cardboard portfolio containing five unpaged staplebound booklets in self-wrappers, two folded posters (one large, one small), and one large triple-folded single sheet calendar (posters and calendar all printed on both sides). Created to accompany the exhibition produced by the USIA touring the Soviet Union, the content of this portfolio was drawn from the exhibition and consists almost entirely of color illustrations by the greatest comercial artist talents in the USA in 1963. Text in Russian utilizing Cyrilic alphabet. The staplebound booklets, (in loose translation from the Russian) are titled : Illustration, Prints, Graphic Designers, Illustration & Humor, and Artists at Work. The color logo on the front of the printed portfolio was designed by Tom Geismar and is perhaps the most iconic work of Geismar's career, which is saying a lot, given the career he had. Portfolio Condition: Fair. Perished at the edges all round, upper cover completely separated from lower cover, with chipping and creasing throughout; still, the iconic color logo printed on the front and all the bibliographical text on the back are intact, bright and vibrant even. Condition of assorted booklets, posters and calendar is extraordinary, very near fine with none of the foxing, toning, or wear that one would expect from such an ephemeral production. Quite scarce, as well as important; Worldcat shows just 4 institutional holdings: Amherst College, the Smithsonian Institution Library, Los Angeles County Museum (LACMA), and UCLA. From "Cold War Confrontations: US Exhibitions and their Role in the Cultural Cold War" "Graphic Arts: USA" was an exhibition intended to display the finest examples of modern advertising graphics, book cover design and poster art that was created throughout the West during the late Fifties - early Sixties. The show was organized by the Exhibition Division of the United States Information Agency under the watchful eye of Jack Masey (1924 - 2016) and toured four Soviet cities beginning in the Fall of 1963 and closing one year later. "The exhibition is a study of in calculated disorder, diversity, and uninhibited gaiety. It has been designed to show what happens in a society where an artist, whatever his talents happen to be, is free to let his imagination run in any direction he wants and the message is getting across." The exhibit's popularity was a surprise to all concerned; Jack Masey "expected a sizable turnout but not the more than one thousand every hour who have been pouring in since the show opened." "'You mean you're really allowed to paint like this, and nobody says anything?' one of the visitors asked." In the five decades that have passed since the exposition was launched it has become legend. The artists whose work was displayed are still remembered as the finest in their respective fields.