ARTBOOK BLOG

RECENT POSTS

DATE 6/25/2025

Rizzoli presents Anderson Zaca with Thom (Panzi) Hansen for the NYC launch of 'Fire Island Invasion: A Day of Independence'

DATE 6/21/2025

ICP Photobook Club presents Anderson Zaca on 'Fire Island Invasion'

DATE 6/15/2025

Gasoline and Magic for Father's Day, 2025

DATE 6/13/2025

In Nydia Blas' 'Love, You Came from Greatness,' the title says it all

DATE 6/12/2025

'Gordon Parks: Segregation Story' is Back in Stock!

DATE 6/9/2025

Four decades of previously unpublished work by Bruce Davidson

DATE 6/8/2025

Artbook at MoMA PS1 Bookstore presents J. Hoberman and Melissa Rachleff Burtt on 'Everything is Now'

DATE 6/7/2025

Artbook at MoMA PS1 Bookstore presents Jeanette Spicer launching 'To the Ends of the Earth'

DATE 6/5/2025

A love letter from Robert Frank

DATE 6/2/2025

Exact Change launches Chris Marker's 'Immemory: Gutenberg Version'

DATE 6/1/2025

Inspiration for now in 'Gran Fury: Art Is Not Enough'

DATE 6/1/2025

Pride Month Staff Picks 2025!

DATE 5/29/2025

Feel-good color photography in 'Chromotherapia'


BOOKS IN THE MEDIA

CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 5/13/2014

Libuse Niklová

What a joy to preview the first monograph in English on mid-century Czech toy designer Libuse Niklová. The woman was unstoppable, designing many dozens of inflatable, accordion-pleated and hollow, static figures of only the most adorable and compelling kind. The book, by the interesting Czech publisher Arbor Vitae, is as playful as its subject, with puffy hardbound cover, three different colored ribbons and a complete inventory of works by this modest modernist printed on special, smaller matte paper and bound inside. Wonderful archival images are interspersed with a wealth of new photographs, and set among both personal and scholarly texts.

Libuse Niklová
Buffalo and calf, 1971.

"Development cannot be held back. In the future, products from plastic matter will surround man just like the air, and they will become commonplace. Increasingly, natural materials will be a luxury and the object of admiration. The future, however, belongs to plastic." - Libuse Niklová, 1971

Libuse Niklová
Fox, 1964.

"When designing individual animals I was mainly focusing on the fact that the child should have the opportunity to play with the toy in the most creative way. Since these are flexible and elastic animals, the child can imitate creeping, stretching and meowing, just as he or she learns by watching nature. It is as if the child is playing with a puppet theatre; and it is unlike other toys set in motion by a flywheel or a key where the child is only a passive observer." - L.N., 1964

Libuse Niklová
Red Riding Hood, 1969.

Libuse Niklová
Motorcyclist, 1964.

"We made up themes for the toys on our own and, in some cases, after a particular request from businessmen and Pragoexport. We were absolutely free in deciding what toys to make. We insisted on regular visits to exhibitions in Prague and Brno, and we also drew animals in the zoo." - Anna Vystydova, December 2009

Libuse Niklová
Dutch Girl, 1970.

Libuse Niklová
Elephant, 1972.

Libuse Niklová
Plastic playthings, 1954-1964.

Libuse Niklová
Giraffe, 1971.

"The continual creative process, moving from an idea through the manufacturing process and all the way to the resulting design, is exactly what attracts my attention to plastic material." - L.N., 1972