Eisenstein on Paper: Graphic Works by the Master of Film Book

Sergei Eisenstein is regarded as one of cinema's greatest revolutionaries; his use of montage, symbolic images and skilful editing transformed the possibilities of filmmaking and dramatically modernized the artform. Yet he was also a prolific graphic artist who sketched continuously throughout his life. Despite completing relatively few films in his lifetime, Eisenstein made several thousand drawings - an almost entirely overlooked artistic output that runs parallel to his motion pictures. Eisenstein on Paper begins with a biography by film historian Ian Christie that chronicles the unlikely life and career of Sergei Eisenstein and an introduction by Naum Kleiman that traces the evolution of Eisenstein's graphic styles and the relationship of his drawings to his theatre and film work. This is followed by a visual display of Eisenstein's graphic works, arranged chronologically into chapters and prefaced by text that reveals the motivation and purpose of the drawings, and includes revealing extracts from Eisenstein's own writings. The book features caricatures from his juvenilia, ambitious constructivist set and costume designs from his theatrical career, drawings influenced by ancient and contemporary Mexican art created during his time in Mexico, abstract and surreal therapeutic drawings of his mid-career and the wonderfully simple and sincere work reminiscent of Jean Cocteau's style created towards the end of his life.Read More