I recently attended an exhibit of paintings, sculpture and collage (and film and music and, oh, pretty much everything else) from the original Société Anonyme exhibit of 1920. It was a pretty overwhelming show, and it was interesting to see all these pieces together, as they were originally shown. I heard some people complain that it felt too intellectual or whatever but I thought it was a refreshing change from water lilies and sunflowers, frankly. One thing that really jumped out at me was how influential the Modernist movement has been on graphic design for decades, long after its influence on painting and sculpture seems to have waned. Working parallel to Duchamp, Arp, Man Ray et al. was designer Edward McKnight Kauffer, who’s responsible for a whole raft of famous book jacket and poster designs. Just Google him and you’ll see. A prime example of Kauffer at his best (and latest — he died two years later) is his original cover for Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, about which there is nothing to say beyond “sheer perfection.” One thing I find telling about it is there have been how many editions of the book since this 1952 first edition? It ‘s still the best cover the book’s ever had, and it was created thirty years after the Société Anonyme show. Kauffer had kept at it, refining the tenets of the movement down to a few strokes and lines. He was truly one of the great Modernists — in any medium.