BOOK OF DRAWINGS
Herbert Bayer
Herbert Bayer: BOOK OF DRAWINGS. Chicago: Paul Theobald, 1961. First edition. Square folio. Orange paper-covered slipcase with paper label. Glossy white portfolio wrapper containing 42 plates and string-bound 8-page introductory booklet. Slipcase lightly rubbed and splitting along bottom edge, otherwise a very good or better copy. 10.75 x 11.25 slipcase containing a folder with 42 single-color plates [10.625 x 11] on cream card stock, and an 8-page string-bound introductory booklet reproducing a foreword by Otto Karl Bach and an introduction by Herbert Bayer with facsimile thumbprint and signature. Printed in Japan by Zokeisha Publications. I'm a little sad we're selling this; most, if not all of these prints would look excellent framed!
All artwork in this portfolio was covered by copyright by the Container Corporation of America, where Bayer served as Design Consultant. An excellent vintage snapshot of corporate America's embrace of the European Avant-Garde and a tribute to Bayer's artistic output during his Aspen years.
Of all the artists to pass through the Bauhaus, none lived the Bauhaus ideal of total integration of the arts into life like Herbert Bayer (1900 - 1985). He was a graphic designer, typographer, photographer, painter, environmental designer, sculptor and exhibition designer. He entered the Bauhaus in 1921 and was greatly influenced by Kandinsky, Moholy-Nagy and El Lissitzky. He left in 1923, but returned in 1925 to become a master in the school. During his tenure as a Bauhaus master he produced many designs that became standards of a Bauhaus "style." Bayer was instrumental in moving the Bauhaus to purely sans serif usage in all its work. In 1928 he left the Bauhaus to work in Berlin. He primarily worked as a designer and art director for the Dorland Agency, an international firm. During his years at Dorland a Bayer style was established. Bayer emigrated to the United States in 1938 and set up practice in New York. His US design included work for NW Ayers, consultant art director for J. Walter Thompson and design work for GE. From 1946 on he worked exclusively for Container Corporation of America (CCA) and the Atlantic Richfield Corporation. In 1946 he moved to Aspen to become design consultant to CCA. In 1956 he became chairman of the department of design, a position he held until 1965. He was awarded the AIGA medal in 1970. Bayer's late work included work for ARCO and many personal projects including several environmental designs.
Six plates from this set can be viewed here.
out of stock