PRINTING ART QUARTERLY
Volume 67, No. 3, 1938
Laszlo Moholy-Nagy
Laszlo Moholy-Nagy et al. : PRINTING ART QUARTERLY. Chicago: Dartnell, 1938 [Volume 67, Number 3]. First edition. Small folio. Decorated glazed paper covered boards. White plastic coil-binding. 126 pp. Illustrated articles and trade advertisements. Elaborate design on a variety of paper stocks. The laminated cardboard boards are lightly soiled and edgeworn. Original coil-binding clean, intact and unbroken. A very good, superior copy of this easily-abused title.
10 x 13.25 hardcover book with 126 pages printed on a variety of paper stocks. A stellar production that shows the publishing power of Chicago in the mid-thirties. Many examples of Chicago graphic design and photography from 1937, collected here for the first time.
The highlights of this book (in my opinion) is the Moholy-Nagy article-- an early original document from the New Bauhaus, and later as the Institute of Design). In addition, there are multiple examples of extraordinary american streamlined art deco graphic design, much of it in full-page, full-color reproduction. The Cassandre pieces are nice to see, stripped bare of the N. W. Ayer advertising copy that normally accompanies these examples. The illustrated article on modern posters by Jospeh Binder is an excellent early document as well.
Contents:
- Portfolio of Drawings by A. M. Cassandre Five full-page b/w illustrations by Cassandre commissioned by the Container Corporation of America.
- Paths to the Unleashed Color Camera by Laszlo Moholy-Nagy. This five-page article includes three images by Moholy-Nagy, including a full-page color reproduction. Reprint of a piece originally published in THE PENROSE ANNUAL [REVIEW OF THE GRAPHIC ARTS VOLUME 39. London: Lund Humphries, 1937].
- Fine illustrations for Physicians
- Problems of Art in Selling Men's Apparel
- Direct-mail Copy that Retailers use
- 27 Chicago Designers
- Letterhead Typography 1939
- International Poster Art by Joseph Binder
- And more.
The large format of the PRINTING ART QUARTERLY page spreads made ideal canvases for presenting avant-garde design and typographic ideas. These layouts were more progressive and displayed the European avant-garde influence in American graphic design more aggresively than other contemporary American trade publications.
This volume includes work by the following artists and designers: William Welsh (a beautiful full-page, full-color image; as well as three smaller b/w images), Norman Anderson, Joseph Binder, M. Leone Bracker, H. Brenner, Pierre Brisssaud, Pruett Carter, A. M. Cassandre, J. Francis Chase, Dean Cornwell, Anne Edwards, Stanley Ekman, Luis Hidalgo, Elmer Jacobs, J. C. Leyendecker, James Macarthur, Walto Malmiola, Edward Mccabe, M. Vaughan Millbourn, Edgar Miller, Fredeic Mizen, Dale Nichols, Gregory Orloff, Taylor Poore, Weimar Pursell, Willard Grayson Smythe and others.
Laszlo Moholy-Nagy [Hungarian, 1895-1946] was born in Bacsbarsod, Hungary. Injured during World War I, he turned to painting and made contact with the Budapest avant-garde in 1918. In 1922, Maholy-Nagy participated in the International Dada-Constructivist Congress in Weimar and began experiments in photography with his wife Lucia. Appointed master at the Bauhaus in 1923, he made his first film, Berliner Stilleden, in 1926. Although always a painter and designer, Moholy-Nagy became a key figure in photography in Germany in the 1920's. In 1928 Moholy-Nagy left the Bauhaus and traveled to Amsterdam and London. His teachings and publications of photographic experimentations were crucial to the international development of the New Vision. In 1937 he was invited to found the New Bauhaus in Chicago by the Association of Arts and Industries. Moholy-Nagy served as teacher and director there from 1937 until his death in 1946.
Spreads from this volume can be viewed here.
out of stock