THE PENROSE ANNUAL
REVIEW OF THE GRAPHIC ARTS VOLUME 40

Jan Tschichold [Designer] and R. B. Fishenden [Editor]

8.5 x 11.5 hardcover book with 160 pages of illustrated text, 31 tipped-in printed smaples and 56 pages of trade advertising. The PENROSE ANNUAL has served as official yearbook for Englandıs commercial printing industry by presenting a balance of general and technical articles with abundant tipped-in plates exhibiting the latest achievements. This edition is notable for Jan Tschicholdıs typography, both for the text, as well as the majority of the 56 pages of advertising.

Perhaps the best example of Tschicholdıs transitional period between the New Typography and Classicism. The textblock is elegantly set in Monotype Van Dijck and the binding is both as progressive and proper as would be expected for any English document of record.

In EINE STUNDE DRUCKGESTALTUNG [1930] Tschichold further defined the characteristices of his New Typography: freedom from tradition; geometrical simplicity; contrast of typographic material; exclusion of any typographic ornament not functionally necessary; preference for photography, for machine-set type and for combinations of primary colors; and the recognition and acceptance of the machine age and the utilitarian purpose of typography.

By 1938, Tschichold was flipping through those characteristics like a magician through a trick deck of cards. The advertisements in this PENROSE ANNUAL act like a primer for the application of the tenets of the New Typography.

Of particular note is a tipped-in example of the Menu Cover designed by Laszlo Moholy-Nagy for the Walter Gropius farewell dinner held on March 9th, 1937, printed in three-color offset by Lund Humphries on Flake White Parchment. See David Dean: ARCHITECTURE OF THE 1930S [RECALLING THE ENGLISH SCENE]. New York: Rizzoli 1983, figures 122, 123 for the cover and the guest list.

Also includes articles by John Gloag, Noel Carrington, Allen Lane, Paul Standard, Frederick Horn, Michael Gifford, Robert Harling, Harold Curwen and many others. Includes artwork by Herbert Matter, E. McKnight Kauffer, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy's work for Imperial Airways, Herbert Bayer, and so much more.

Excellent overview of the turbulence in the English Graphic Arts Industry caused by displacement of the European Avant-Garde by the rising tide of National Socialism.

Price: $350.00
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