The Art Institute of Chicago

Partnerships in Print: Avant-Garde Periodical DesignAuthor(s): Leslie K. WakefordSource: Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies, Vol. 34, No. 2, Art through the Pages:Library Collections at the Art Institute of Chicago (2008), pp. 52-55, 94Published by: The Art Institute of ChicagoStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20205626 .

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fate was the Art Institute's Young Spartan Girls Challenging

Boys, often called Young Spartans (fig. 2), sold in the

December 1918 auctions held at the Galerie Georges Petit.

Painted around i860 after Degas' sojourn in Italy, this early work is widely considered an unfinished precursor to a

completed painting now in the National Gallery, London.5

Like the Italian Renaissance frescoes that Degas studied

firsthand, the composition of the work appears quite formal, and the landscape and the central group arrayed in front of

classical architecture lend a serene, orderly quality to the scene. By contrast, the athletic youths in the foreground assume dramatic, ungainly, and menacing poses as

they

attempt to provoke one another. Perhaps it is this mixture

of the serene and graceful with the sharp and dramatic that

inspired artist and critic James Bolivar Manson to state that

the completed painting "shows a promise of the later Degas, and, in parts, some faint hint of his essential quality."6 Degas'

ability to meld such contrasting elements?encompassing the expressiveness and beauty, as well as the awkwardness,

of the human form?foreshadows his future depictions of

modern life. If studies and unfinished works like Young

Spartans had been destroyed according to Degas' wishes, we

would understand far less about the development of one of

the nineteenth century's greatest artists.

Equally surprising is the depth with which the artist

collected the works of his predecessors, especially Eugene Delacroix and Ingres, as well as contemporaries such as

Mary Cassait, Gauguin, and Edouard Manet. Degas seemed to collect out of a love and appreciation for beautiful things

more than a desire for financial gain or investment.7 After

purchasing works by Paul C?zanne and Van Gogh, he

exclaimed: "I buy! I buy! I can't stop myself. The trouble

is that people are . . . bidding against me, they know that

when I want something, I absolutely must have it."8 By 1900, Degas' collection had grown to such an extent and

had attained such importance as a resource for himself and

fellow artists that he contemplated establishing his own

museum, but the Mus?e Degas never came to fruition.9

Today, a number of the works he collected and so admired

reside in the Art Institute, after passing through the estate

auctions and the collections of previous owners. Van Gogh's Still Life with Apples, Pears, Lemons, and Grapes (fig. 3), for example, was purchased by art dealer Paul Rosenberg at one of the estate sales and was eventually bequeathed to the

Art Institute by Mr. and Mrs. Walter S. Brewster (see pp.

19-23) in 1949.IO This painting has a fascinating provenance

predating Degas's acquisition from the famous art dealer

Ambroise Vollard: Van Gogh's close friend, the artist Emile

Bernard, received it as a gift from Andries Bonger, Theo van Gogh's brother-in-law.11 Painted in 1888 toward the

end of Van Gogh's two-year stay in Paris, the work belongs to a series of eight still lifes; scholar Jan Hulsker described

them as "pure studies in color," reflecting the influence of

Impressionism and Neo-Impressionism on Van Gogh's work, largely enabled by the contacts of his art dealer brother, Theo.12 Like Degas' Young Spartans, certain characteristics

of this still life?the dynamic brushwork and brilliant use

of color?suggest how Van Gogh's style would further

develop in Aries and later in Saint-R?my. The painting, now

enjoyed by visitors to the Art Institute of Chicago, was once

displayed among the wealth of breathtaking works in the

Parisian apartment of a man who shaped the history of art

not only through his creations, but also through the work he

collected and preserved. The Degas estate auction catalogues

help us to imagine what the artist's studio contained in the

last years of his life and what the Mus?e Degas, as the artist

himself envisioned it, might have been.

PARTNERSHIPS IN PRINT: AVANT-GARDE PERIODICAL DESIGN

LESLIE K. WAKEFORD

Among the many early-twentieth-century periodicals in the

Ryerson and Burnham Libraries are several documenting

modern artists' roles in developing and experimenting with

typography and graphic design. Their innovations were not

the result of solitary artistic activity. The covers and contents

of these periodicals demonstrate the vital partnerships and

collaborations of Modernist designers as they challenged the

conventions of their discipline. The culture of the early twentieth century was sat

urated with the printed word. The rise of new printing

techniques, mass publications, and print advertising

inspired modern artists to create new modes of visual and

verbal communication. They designed and illustrated books

and incorporated print materials into collages, paintings, and sculptures. Although diverse in their goals and

expressive strategies, artists working in a variety of styles

and locations?including the Cubists, Italian Futurists, Berlin Dadaists, members of the Dutch De Stijl movement, Russian Constructivists, and those associated with the

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Figure i. El Lissitzky (Russian, 1890-1941). Cover of Wendingen 4, 11 (1921). This issue, dedicated to

Frank Lloyd Wright, features a cover that merges elements of Lissitzky's Constructivism with Wright's

organic Prairie Style.

German Bauhaus?all shared an interest in deploying modern typography. Abstracting the raw material of

industrial, technological culture into their critiques of the

artistic, political, and social status quo, artists used the

printed word as a key medium for communicating avant

garde perspectives. New typographical styles represented the graphic embodiment of one of the central tenets of the

artistic vanguard: fusing form with function.

These periodicals constituted a vital meeting place?a virtual salon, of sorts?where artists shared and reflected

upon one another's work. Whether drawn together because

of common ideological concerns or to join the talents of

editor and illustrator, artists forged partnerships that helped to spread avant-garde perspectives across Europe. As the

Ryerson Library's collection reveals, the publications were quite varied in scope and ambition; while some were

self-financed, others were funded through subscriptions.

Flouting conventions of typsetting and illustration, these

periodicals, both large and small, forever altered the way we

understand the aesthetic and expressive

possibilities of the printed page.1

WENDINGEN:

WIJDEVELD. LISSITZKY, AND WRIGHT

Graphic designer, architect, and pub lisher Hendrik Theodorus Wijdeveld used his design journal, Wendingen,

meaning upheaval or inversion, to

chronicle the various approaches with

in the Modernist movement. Published

in Amsterdam from 1918 to 1931, the publication hosted work that put creative minds into productive dialogue with one another as well as with their

historical antecedents and influences.

Wendingen s unusual square format,

heavy paper, and Japanese binding gave it a unique look. Although the

journal covered diverse artistic topics and genres from modern dance to

glass blowing, it became known as a

vehicle for the Amsterdam School, an

architectural movement that diverged from the De Stijl group.

A cover from 1921, which intro

duced one of several issues dedicated to Wijdeveld s one-time teacher Frank

Lloyd Wright, unites the American architect's organic Prairie

Style with the Russian artist and architect El Lissitzky's Constructivist mode (see fig. i).2 Using only type and geo metric forms such as circles, rectangles, and diagonal lines

of varying weights, Lissitzky articulated a universal design

language that both he and Wright sought to achieve in their

work. The red square in the lower-left corner was a symbol

they shared?Lissitzky often used it to signify clarity, and

it served as Wright's personal emblem, inspired by nature.

Since Wright's primary exposure in Europe up to this time was limited to the publication in Germany of the Wasmuth

Portfolio (1910-11), Wendingen played a major role in

broadening his audience and bringing the public up to date on his architectural designs. Wijdeveld's decision to pair

Lissitzsky with Wright announced, however subtly, that both men were fellow travelers in the international avant-garde.

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DIESES DOPPELHEFT IST ERSCHIENEN UNTER DER REDAKTION VON EL LISSITZKY UND KURT SCHWITTERS

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NATUR VON LAT. NASCI D.I.WERDEN ODER ENT STEHEN HEISSTALLES, WAS SICH AUS SICH SELBST DURCH EIGENE KRAFT ENTWICKELT GESTALTETUND BEWEGT KteW?R 8ROKHAUS

Natur?, ?u mm INA^OV^I ? M prop?? torca, a* d?valopp?. m term?, m m

Figure i. El Lissitzky. Cover of Merz 8/9 (April-July 1924). Founded by Kurt

Schwitters, Merz brought together artists, poets and, cultural critics associated

with the Dada, De Stijl, and Constructivist movements, including Lissitzky.

MERZ:

SCHWITTERS AND LISSITZKY

The magazine Merz, founded by the German Kurt

Schwitters, was a vehicle for working with like-minded

artists in the Constructivist, Dada, and De Stijl movements.

Merz is a nonsense word invented by Schwitters to refer to his artistic output, which included poems, paintings,

collages, and found-object sculptures.3 The 1923 inaugural issue, dedicated to Dada in Holland, features contributions

by Schwitters, the Dutch artist Theo van Doesburg, and

the Romanian poet Tristan Tzara. Such collaborations gave Merz an

ever-changing but recognizable aesthetic, and early

issues continued to promote the political and stylistic ideas

associated with these movements.

A 1924 cover by El Lissitzky, who also coedited the

issue, displays the precise composition and geometric ab

straction of Russian Constructivism (see fig. 2). Entitled

Nasci (Nature), it conveys a message that both Lissitzky

^B > *.* li? indi "."'','',*". '.i.?,', .,'

^?. ^!\t.!l Ml >ll*l ??M ?.?.. ?!.' >..! . ...I.. .!.> I.

Figure 3. Herbert Bayer (Austrian, 1900-1985). Cover of Bauhaus: Zeitschrift

f?r Gestaltung 2, 1 (1928). This image exemplifies the creative design principles of the Bauhaus through the use of "typofoto," the integration of photography,

type, and collage developed by L?szl? Moholy-Nagy.

and Schwitters had been working toward independently: nature, as the source of human creativity, should be heeded

and expressed rather than inhibited by the influences of

nationality, politics, or cultural practice. Their efforts

resulted in a nonrepresentational cover with spare lettering

arranged in a gridlike, architectural composition. Coupled with the generous use of white space, the design embraces

the superiority of universality over particularity.

BAUHAUS: ZEITSCHRIFT F?R GESTALTUNG:

BAYER AND MOHOLY-NAGY

The Austrian Herbert Bayer worked as a package and

interior designer before enrolling in 1921 at the Weimar

Bauhaus, where he studied first with Wassily Kandinsky and

then with L?szl? Moholy-Nagy (see pp. 73-77). When the

school moved to Dessau in 1925, Bayer joined the faculty in typography. He capitalized on the decision Moholy had

made several years earlier to produce the school's printed

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material in-house, using these publications as vehicles

to experiment with new forms of graphic design. Bayer advocated for the exclusive use of a lower-case alphabet

in order to simplify and harmonize print materials, and he

emphasized simplicity and order over decorative flourishes. In his design for the cover of the first issue of Bauhaus:

Zeitschrift f?r Gestaltung from 1928, Bayer utilized "typo foto"?the integration of collage, photography, and type

developed by Moholy?to striking effect (see fig. 3).4 This

cover-within-a-cover is a still life of a folded Bauhaus

magazine topped with drafting tools and a cube, circle, and cone, all symbols of the school. Moholy's influence

is also evident in the combination of symmetrical and

asymmetrical elements, tonal values, and photography that

simultaneously enliven the page and engage the reader. The

clarity and persuasiveness of such compositions remain an

important legacy in graphic design today.

NEVER JUDGE A BOOK BY ITS COVER: MARY REYNOLDS'S BINDING FOR NIGHT-FLIGHT

CHRISTINE M. FABIAN AND JACK PERRY BROWN

When trustee Frank B. Hubachek gave the Mary Reynolds Collection to the Art Institute in 1951, the Ryerson Library received more than 350 titles encompassing the major

printed monuments of the Surrealist movement. Reynolds,

Hubachek's sister, lived in Paris from 1921 until her death

in 1950 (and briefly in New York during World War II),

becoming an important and beloved figure in bohemian

circles. For much of her time in France she lived with the

artist Marcel Duchamp, and many of the books in the

Reynolds Collection attest?in subject matter, design, or

inscriptions?to their complex and enduring relationship.

Figure i. Antoine de Saint-Exup?ry, Night-Flight (Crosby Continental Editions, 1932). Binding by Mary Reynolds (American, 1892-1950). Reynolds's

binding features dark blue, vegetable-tanned sheepskin and flyleaves incorporating images of Corolles^ the first in Marcel Duchamp's Rotore lief series of 1935.

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Webster, "The Life Work of Dard Hunter " pp. 48-49.

1. Dard Hunter II, The Life Work of Dard Hunter: A Progressive Illustrated

Assemblage of His Works as Artist, Craftsman, Author, Papermaker, and Printer

(Mountain House Press, 1981), vol. 1, p. 1.

2. The Ryerson Library's copy is number 63 of the "regular" edition, which was

printed on thirty-four pound white stock. The fifty copies called "special" are full

leather bindings on forty-four pound cream paper, signed by the author. Both

editions were bound by Gray Parrot, Hancock, Me.

Oliveri, "Sculpture: An Essay on Stone-Cutting with a Preface about God" pp.

49-50. 1. Fiona MacCarthy, Eric Gill (Faber and Faber, 1989) pp. 94, 96. 2. Eric Gill, Sculpture: An Essay on Stone-Cutting with a Preface about God (St. Dominic's Press, 1924), p. 8.

3. Ibid, p. 5.

4. Ibid, p. 36.

5. Ibid, p. 38.

P?rtala, "The Artist as Creator and Collector: The Edgar Degas Estate

Auction Catalogues," pp. 50-52. 1. The eight auctions took place at Galerie Georges Petit, Galerie Manzi-Joyant, and H?tel Drouot. The Ryerson Library has seven of the eight original auction

catalogues in its collection.

2. Ann Dumas, "Degas and His Collection," in Anne Dumas et al., The Private

Collection of Edgar Degas, exh. cat. (Metropolitan Museum of Art/Harry N.

Abrams, 1997), p. 3.

3. Ibid., p. 5. Dumas mentioned the Louvre, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the Mus?e du Luxembourg, and the National Gallery, London, as

having a distinct presence at the auctions.

4. Gary Tinterow, "Degas' Degases," in Dumas et al. (note 2), pp. 79, 91. Ernest

Rouart, husband of Berthe Morisot's daughter Julie Manet, along with Degas' other relations and confidants, chose not to honor this request.

5. The National Gallery's Young Spartans was painted around the same time as the

Art Institute's version and later reworked by Degas before he submitted it to the

Fifth Impressionist Exhibition in 1880. For an in-depth comparison of the two

paintings, see Jean Sutherland Boggs, Degas (Art Institute of Chicago, 1996), pp.

16-18; and Richard R. Brettell and Suzanne Folds McCullagh, Degas in the Art

Institute of Chicago (Art Institute of Chicago/Harry N. Abrams, 1984), pp. 32-33. 6. James Bolivar Manson, The Life and Work of Edgar Degas (The Studio, 1927),

p. 8.

7. See Dumas et al. (note 2), p. 9. 8. Edgar Degas, quoted by Daniel Hal?vy in Degas parle (La Palatine, i960); as

cited in Dumas et al. (note 2), p. 12.

9. Ibid., pp. 16, 24-25. Dumas noted that Degas feared the administrative aspect of

managing a museum along with the prospect of the government assuming control

of his collection after his death.

10. Sold as lot 92 at the Mar. 1918 auctions held at Galerie Georges Petit. Rebecca

A. Rabinow, ed., C?zanne to Picasso: Ambroise Vollard, Patron of the Avant-Garde, exh. cat. (Metropolitan Museum of Art/Yale University Press, 2006), p. 374. 11. Ibid., p. 374. 12. Jan Hulsker, The New Complete Van Gogh: Paintings, Drawings, Sketches (J.

M. Meulenhoff/John Benjamin, 1996), p. 296; and A. M. and Renilde Hammacher, Van Gogh: A Documentary Biography (Thames and Hudson, 1982), p. 125.

Wakeford, "Partnerships in Print: Avant-Garde Periodical Design," pp. 52-55. i. For further reading on avant-garde publication design, see Jaroslav Andel,

Avant-Garde Page Design, 1900-195o (Delano Greenbridge Editions, 2002); Steven Heller, Merz to Emigr? and Beyond: Avant-Garde Magazine Design of the

Twentieth Century (Phaidon, 2003); and Jan Tschichold, The New Typography: a Handbook for Modern Designers, trans, by Ruari McLean (University of

California Press, 1995). The Art Institute's Mary Reynolds Collection (see pp.

55-56) contains a wide variety of Dada and Surrealist periodicals.

2. Wendingen was published monthly from 1918 to 1931, with a total run of 116

issues. The Ryerson Library owns two sets, one bound and one loose; the latter was part of a gift from the Bruce Goff estate in 1990.

3. Merz was published in Hanover from 1923 to 1932. Several issues were

combined within numbers 1-24; numbers 10 and 22-23 were never published. 4. Bauhaus: Zeitschrift f?r Gestaltung was published quarterly in Dessau from

1926 to 1931; it suspended publication during 1930 and ceased publication with

the July 1931 issue.

Fabian and Brown, "Never Judge a Book by Its Cover: Mary Reynolds's

Binding for Night-Flight" pp. 55-56. 1. Hugh Edwards, Surrealism and Its Affinities: The Mary Reynolds Collection, A

Bibliography (Art Institute of Chicago, c. 1956), 2nd edition, 1973; ana Art Institute

of Chicago Museum Studies 22, 2 (1996). This issue of Museum Studies is also

available at www.artic.edu/reynolds/, along with an on-line collection catalogue. 2. Alice Goldfarb Marquis, Marcel Duchamp

= Eros, C'est la vie: A Biography

(Whitston Publishing, 1981), p. 242.

3. Pierre Cabanne, Dialogues with Marcel Duchamp (Thames and Hudson, 1971),

p. 68. For more on Reynolds and Duchamp, see ?tant donn? 8 (2008). This is the

most in-depth published treatment of Reynolds's life and art, based on extensive

documentary research in, among other places, the Mary Reynolds Archive in the

Ryerson Library. 4. Antoine de Saint-Exup?ry, Night-Flight, trans, by Stuart Gilbert (Crosby Continental Editions, 1932); bound 1935 or later.

5. The terms "made endpapers" and "made flyleaves" refer to techniques in which

decorative papers, marbled or otherwise, are incorporated into the endsheets of a

binding. Typically one or both leaves of a decorated sheet are pasted onto the plain endsheet leaves, which are often uncolored paper similar to that of the text. Matt

T. Roberts and Don Etherington, Bookbinding and the Conservation of Books

(Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., 1982), pp. 163-64. For an extended

consideration of Duchamp's rotoreliefs, see Arturo Schwarz, The Complete Works of Marcel Duchamp, 3rd ed. (Delano Greenidge, 1996), vol. 2, pp. 728-31. 6. Susan Glover, "Cendres chaudes: vie et carri?re de Mary Reynolds," in ?tant

donn? 8 (2008), p. 27. The same stock was used as endpapers for Reynolds's copy of Raymond Queneau 's Lion de Rueil, published in 1944.

Kramer, "One Cent Life " pp. 56-58.

1. Mary Lee Corlett, The Prints of Roy Lichtenstein: A Catalogue Raisonn?,

1948-1993 (National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C./Hudson Hills Press,

1994), pp. 20-21. The complete list of participating artists includes Pierre

Alechinsky, Karel Appel, Enrico Baj, Alan Davie, Jim Dine, ?yvind Fahlstr?m, Sam Francis, Robert Indiana, Alfred Jensen, Asger J?rn, Allan Kaprow, Alfred

Leslie, Roy Lichtenstein, Joan Mitchell, Kiki O.K., Claes Oldenburg, Mel Ramos, Robert Rauschenberg, Reinhoud, Jean-Paul Riopelle, James Rosenquist, Antonio

Saura, Kimber Smith, K. R. H. Sonderberg, Walasse Ting, Bram Van Velde, Andy Warhol, and Tom Wesselmann. 2. A. F. Page, "An Action Painting," Bulletin of The Detroit Institute of Arts 39, 1 (1959-60), p. 12.

3. Wake Forest University, Print Collection, One Cent Life, www.wfu.edu/art/

pc/pc-ting.html (accessed Nov. 29, 2007).

4. Walasse Ting, "Near 1 Cent Life," Art News 65, 3 (May 1966), p. 6j.

5. Ibid., p. 38; Walasse Ting, One Cent Life, regular ed. (E. W. Klipstein, 1964),

top verso, n.pag. 6. See Willemijn Stokvis, Cobra: An International Movement in Art After the

Second World War (Rizzoli, 1988), p. 20; and Carnegie Institute, Museum of Art, Fresh Air School (Carnegie Institute, 1972).

7. Corlett (note 1), pp. 20-21.

Nichols, "Hairy Who Cat-A-Logs: Exhibition Comics," pp. 58-59. 1 The fourth, 1969 exhibition was held at the Corcoran Gallery, Washington, D.C. 2. Dan Nadel, "Hairy Who's History of the Hairy Who," in The Ganzfeld 3

(2003), pp. 121-22.

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