ART D'AUJOURD'HUI 4e Série, No. 6 Aout 1953

Boulogne sur Seine: Art d'aujourd'hui. Near Fine. 1953. First Edition. Pictorial Wrappers. 4e Série, No. 6. Aout 1953; 32 pages; Contents clean and secure in original pictorial wrappers; one tiny but to outer edge. Includes original serigraph and wrap-around band. Illustrated throughout in black and white. Fabulous original wrappers designed by Jean Arp. Wonderful hors texte plate by E. W. Nay. The theme of this issue is "L'Art Abstrait en Allemagne d'Auhourd'hui." Articles include: Michel Seuphor - Allemagne ; Ludwig Grote - Quelque Points d'Histoire; Presentacion de 18 Artistes; Gert Schiff - Le Groupe de Hambourg and La Jeune Generation; Duverneuil and Gueguen - A Propos d'une Interview de Braque; etc. ART D'AUJOURD'HUI was edited by sculptor and architect André Bloc with Edgar Pillet and Pierre Faucheux. Former owner's name in pencil on rear wrapper: "Munsing" From the collection of Stefan P. Munsing [1915-1994] who worked in New York City as a designer for Hans Knoll, Norman Bel Geddes and RCA. Munsing served in the Army in World War II, then as Chief of the Monuments, Fine-Arts & Archives Section in Munich. The MFAA was an Army unit locating stolen artworks which had disappeared into the huge Nazi hoards during the war. [The "Monuments Men"] Munsing later joined the U.S. Department of State during the later 1940's and '50's, where he established the State Department's Amerika Haus programs in Munich and Berlin and organized exhibitions and cultural programs in Germany and Austria. In 1955, he was named cultural officer at the American Embassy in London, where he staged exhibitions of such New York artists as Philip Pavia, Paul Jenkins and Ben Shahn and became an important force in the London art world. Munsing returned to the U.S. in the 1960's and 70's where he helped establish the contemporary art collection of the National Museum of Fine Arts in Washington (now the National Museum of American Art) and headed the State Department's Art in Embassies program. In retirement from the State Department after 1976, Mr. Munsing was a consultant to the American Association of Museums. .