KURT SCHWITTERS
TYPOGRAPHIE UND WERBEGESTALTUNG

[TYPOGRAPHIE KANN UNTER UMSTANDEN KUNST SEIN]
[Typography Can Sometimes Also Be Art]

Ernst Schwitters [essay]

Ernst Schwitters [essay]: KURT SCHWITTERS: TYPOGRAPHIE UND WERBEGESTALTUNG. [TYPOGRAPHIE KANN UNTER UMSTANDEN KUNST SEIN]. Wiesbaden: Landesmuseum Wiesbaden, 1990. A near-fine original exhibition catalog in stiff, printed french-folded wrappers. Interior unmarked and very clean. Out-of-print.

9.5 x 11.5 softcover catalogue with 262 pages and 278 plates and text illustrations of Schwitter¹s avant-garde typographic design and advertising work from the late 1920s and early 1930s. Easily the most comprehensive single-volume conspectus of Schwitter¹s graphic design work ever assembled. I am a huge fan of this work, and there are many examples presented herein that I have never seen before. Enough said.

Also includes typographic compositions by Theo van Doesburg, Raoul Hausmann, Johannes Baader, Tristan Tzara, Guillaume Apollinaire, F. T. Marinetti, Hugo Ball, and El Lisitzky.

This exhibition originated at the Landesmuseum Wiesbaden from May 6 to July 8 1990, then traveled to the Sprengel Museum Hannover, from November 1990 to February 1991, then to the Museum Fur Gestaltung Zurich, April-June 1991. The catalog includes essays by Ernst Schwitters, Dietrich Helms, Maria Haldenwanger, Jean Leering, Karl Riha, and others.

The Circle of New Advertising Designers (ring neue werbegestalter) was a group who coalesced after the first statements on the new typography by Tschchold and Moholy-Nagy, and their purpose was the promotion of a common vision of the avant-garde. Ring neue werbegestalter intentionally echoed the name of The Ring, a group of Berlin-based architects which had been formed a few years earlier.

The idea came from Kurt Schwitters and was trumpeted in a 1928 issue of Das Kunstblatt: " A group of nine artists active as advertising designers has formed under the presidency of Kurt Schwitters. Baumeister, Burchatz, Dexel, Domela, Michel, Schwitters,Trump, Tschichold andVordemberge-Gildewart belong to the association."

Before forming The Ring, Schwitters had broadened his approach to visual art to include graphic design, even going through the avant-garde right of passage of designing a sans-serif typeface.

The affiliation of The Ring appears to have been somewhat loose, its activities consisting manily of exhibitions, either promoting the group on its own or contributing to larger events, such as the Werkbund's Film und Foto in 1929.

In Heinz and Bodo Rausch's Gefesselter Blick (1930), The Ring's point of view was defined by Paul Shuitema , acknowledging that modern design involved the separation of hand and machine which previous generations had so strongly fought against: "the designer is not a draughtsman, but rather an organizer of optical and technical factors. His work should not be limited to making notes, placing in groups and organizing things technically."

Tschichold was more succinct: " I attempt to reach the maximum of purpose in my publicity works and to connect the single constructive elements harmoniously -- to design."

Spreads from this volume can be viewed here.

out of stock