Peter Kraus

Guest Contributor / Bookseller / United States / Ursus Books & Gallery

Peter Kraus is the founder and current owner of Ursus Books & Gallery in Manhattan, which offers a comprehensive selection of art reference books, superb copies of rare books in all fields, and decorative prints.

Contributed Articles

Daily Features
By Peter Kraus September 21, 2022

Rare book expert Peter Kraus explores some milestone moments in the history of infographics and book design.

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Daily Features
By Peter Kraus November 9, 2021

The influential modern architect Le Corbusier, whose 135th birthday will be marked next year, authored and designed more than fifty books during his lifetime. Peter Kraus of Ursus Books explores some of the highlights.

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Daily Features
By Peter Kraus July 7, 2021

Peter Kraus of Ursus Books looks at Futurist masterpieces, photo-books, and other graphically innovative publications produced in Italy during the first half of the twentieth century.

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Daily Features
By Peter Kraus April 13, 2021

From trade catalogues to children’s stories, Dutch graphic designers during the first half of the 20th century produced a memorable body of work that deserves revisiting.

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Daily Features
By Peter Kraus November 24, 2020

Peter Kraus of Ursus Books spotlights one of the least-known periods in the evolution of the photo book in Japan, from the Bauhaus-influenced late 1920s to wartime propaganda.

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Daily Features
By Peter Kraus August 13, 2020

For most of the twentieth century, books that brought together literature and fine art were largely published in France. Certainly almost none were published in the United States. The advent of the San Francisco-based Arion Press in 1974 changed all that.

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Daily Features
By Peter Kraus June 23, 2020

The Russian-born book designer and publisher who went by the name of Iliazd and worked in Paris from the 1920s to the 1970s occupies a unique place in the history of the illustrated book.

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Daily Features
By Peter Kraus May 5, 2020

Peter Kraus chooses eight rare art and design books to remind you of the beauty of the world beyond your walls while you’re self-isolating.

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Daily Features
By Peter Kraus April 7, 2020

From Palladio to Frank Lloyd Wright, architects have brought their work to the printed page with exquisite results.

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Daily Features
By Peter Kraus February 4, 2020

From German Expressionism to Pop Art, catalogues preserve exciting moments in 20th-century art.

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Daily Features
By Peter Kraus December 10, 2019

Matisse had an intense love for books, creating a myriad of vivid illustrations as well as overseeing the selection of paper, typeface, and layout for many of his publications, on which he lavished care and attention.

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Daily Features
By Peter Kraus November 5, 2019

To look at a collection of the books published by Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler in Paris is to get a unique insight into the artistic ferment that marked the early twentieth century.

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Daily Features
By Peter Kraus September 4, 2019

Beginning with the Dada and Surrealist movements, along with major works from high-profile art dealers and publishers, Paris also nurtured a tradition of artists illustrating imaginative and important books on a more modest scale, but often without any diminution of their aesthetic appeal or artistic importance. Peter Kraus explores some of these publications.

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Daily Features
By Peter Kraus July 30, 2019
Japan remains a wonderful place to buy illustrated antiquarian books and to connect with a still thriving community that retains a unique respect for printing, publishing, and collecting books. Peter Kraus uncovers some finds in Tokyo’s Jimbocho district and Kyoto. More...
Daily Features
By Peter Kraus June 25, 2019

Color has been a subject of fascination and importance for artists and designers since our earliest times and cultures. Over the centuries, numerous books have explored theories of color—how it used and perceived. The second installment in a collaboration between Designers & Books and Peter Kraus’s Ursus Books & Gallery in New York highlights three important books from the past devoted to color theory.

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Daily Features
By Peter Kraus May 14, 2019

Peter Kraus, owner of Ursus Books & Gallery in New York, looks at two innovative graphic design publications from the past: Ladislav Sutnar’s Package Design: The Force of Visual Selling, issued in 1953, and F. T. Marinetti’s Les Mots en Liberté Futuristes, published in 1919, 100 years ago.

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