MORE BUSINESS: November 1938
THE VOICE OF LETTERPRESS AND PHOTO-ENGRAVING
The New Bauhaus Issue
Laszlo Moholy-Nagy and George [Gyorgy] Kepes
Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, George [Gyorgy] Kepes, Louis Flader: MORE BUSINESS [THE VOICE OF LETTERPRESS AND PHOTO-ENGRAVING] Volume 3, Number 11, November 1938. Chicago: American Photo-Engravers Association, 1938. Folio. Stapled letterpressed self-wrappers. 20 pp. Profusely illustrated text with photomontage plates, photographs, and work samples. Both covers neatly separated and detached at binding edge, otherwise a very good or better copy of a truly rare publication. Original photomontage cover by George [Gyorgy] Kepes. 11 x 14 magazine in letterpressed self-wrappers with 20 pages of artwork and original text devoted to the New Bauhaus (later School of Design; Institute of Design). MORE BUSINESS was the house organ for the American Photo-Engravers Association, and Professor Moholy-Nagy was given free rein to design the November 1938 issue. Moholy recognized the large format of MORE BUSINESSı page spreads were ideal canvases for presenting his New Vision. The resulting tour-de-force of editorial design was impressively enhanced by stellar engraving (naturally) and fine one-, two- , and four-color letterpress printing.
The content definitely matched the form, with an original cover photomontage by Kepes, student work from classes taught by Kepes, Henry Holmes Smith, and Alexander Archipenko. Includes work by Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, George [Gyorgy] Kepes,Juliet Kepes, Richard Koppe, Grace Seelig, Charles Niedringhaus, Nathan Lerner, Leonard Niederkorn and other students from the short-lived New Bauhaus.
The November publication date for this issue of MORE BUSINESS was timed to coincide with the W. W. Norton release of Moholyıs revised and expanded THE NEW VISION. The date also overlapped the exhibition schedule for BAUHAUS 1919-1928 at the Museum of Modern Art.
Contents:
- New Approach to Fundamentals of Design: L. Moholy-Nagy
- Education of the Eye: George [Gyorgy] Kepes
- Photography
- Photomontage, Photogram
- Color Photography
- Volume and Space
- Sciences
- Lettering by Hin Bredendieck
The large format of MORE BUSINESS page spreads made ideal canvases for presenting avant-garde design and typographic ideas. The layouts in MORE BUSINESS were more progressive and displayed the European avant-garde influence in American graphic design more aggresively than any other contemporary American trade publication.
References: Borchardt-Hume, Achum: ALBERS AND MOHOLY-NAGY FROM THE BAUHAUS TO THE NEW WORLD. NEW HAVEN: Yale University Press, 2006. pp. 97, fig. 49. Travis, D. and Siegel, E. (eds): TAKEN BY DESIGN: PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE INSTITUTE OF DESIGN, 1937-1971. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002. Wingler, Hans: THE BAUHAUS: WEIMAR DESSAU BERLIN CHICAGO. Cambridge, MIT Press, 1969. pgs. 586-7, figs. c, d.
out of stock