Unit 1 by Herbert Read (1934 first edition)

First Edition of this rare and important book: The sole publication of the English artists and architects who formed Unit One by Herbert Read.
 
Unit One consisted of the sculptors Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth, the painters John Armstrong, John Bigge, Edward Burra, Tristram Hillier, Paul Nash, Ben Nicholson and Edward Wadsworth and the architects Wells Coates and Colin Lucas.
 
Unit One opposed the English romantic tradition of working 'by the light of nature' and advocated a strong 'structural purpose' in both painting and architecture.
 
'Unit One is the name of a new group of English artists - painters, sculptors and architects - which was formed early in the year 1933. It is not a group of new artists: most of the eleven constituent members already have established reputations. Nor does it stand for any new principle in art. It arose almost spontaneously among a few artists well-known to each other, out of a consciousness of their mutual sympathies and common necessities.' From the foreword by Herbert Read.
 
Sir Herbert Edward Read, DSO, MC (4 December 1893 – 12 June 1968) was an English art historian, poet, literary critic and philosopher, best known for numerous books on art, which included influential volumes on the role of art in education.
 
His other titles incude his 1933 'Art Now'.
 
He was co-founder of the Institute of Contemporary Arts.
 
As well as being a prominent English anarchist, Herbert Read was one of the earliest English writers to take notice of existentialism.
 
124 pages Illustrated with 67 monochrome plates, wiht the original publisher's yellow cloth cover with title to upper cover.