Alvin Lustig and Mid-Century Modernism

Incantation. Designed by Alvin Lustig, 1947. Printed cotton

Alvin Lustig was a mid-century designer who worked in so many disciplines he is hard to pigeonhole. I opened up the post with a piece of fabric but am going to include a variety of designs showing mastery in different disciplines.

Lustig was born in 1915 and died in 1955. He attended the Los Angeles School of Art and did a brief stint with Frank Lloyd Wright at Taliesin East. Richard Neutra and Phillip Johnson could be counted among his friends. He and his wife had studios in California and New York. In the 50’s he moved to Israel in an effort to establish strong modern design in the infant country. Unfortunately, he passed away before this plan could really be carried out.

Lustig’s strongest contribution was in book cover illustration and was highly sought after for illustrating novels. Along with this he designed fabric, furniture, and interiors. An in-depth study of Lustig can be found here if further investigated is wanted.

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