Gerstner, Karl: DIE NEUE GRAPHIK / THE NEW GRAPHIC ART. Teufen: Arthur Niggli, 1959. Inscribed to Piet Zwart.

Prev Next

Loading Updating cart...

DIE NEUE GRAPHIK

THE NEW GRAPHIC ART
LE NOUVEL ART GRAPHIQUE

Karl Gerstner, Markus Kutter

Karl Gerstner, Markus Kutter: DIE NEUE GRAPHIK / THE NEW GRAPHIC ART / LE NOUVEL ART GRAPHIQUE. Teufen AR, Switzerland: Arthur Niggli, 1959. First edition. Text in English, French and German. Square quarto. Glazed paper-covered boards. Tan quarter-cloth stamped in black. Publishers chipboard slipcase with printed label. 248 pp. 432 illustrations [12 in full color]. Designed by Karl Gerstner. INSCRIBED to Piet Zwart. A fine copy in a fine example of the Publishers slipcase. Rare thus.

Inscribed on front endpaper: P Zwart, dear Pioneer / Karl Gerstner, Hilversum on 15 Juli 1960.  The word 'Zwart' written by Gerstner as a Square. Also laid in is the folded and perforated reception admission ticket to the exhibition "De Typografie van Piet Zwart" at Steendrukkerij De Jong & Co. in Hilversum that opened on July 15, 1960.  The opening reception for the exhibit "geopend worden met een korte voordracht door jongezwitserse graficus karl gerstner uit basel" [opened with a short lecture by a young Swiss graphic artist Karl Gerstner of Basel]. An exceptional association copy. Provenance: from the Piet Zwart library via Ex Libris.

9.25 x 9.25 hardcover book with 248 pages with 432 illustrations [12 in full color] representing an extensive survey of modern graphic design from its' 19th-century origins until the later 1950s. The design of the book is traditional Swiss Modern -- immaculately typeset and laid out on a consistent 3-column grid, a single type family [Univers] set with a minimum of scale and weight changes. THE NEW GRAPHIC ART was the first graphic design conspectus published as an ideological programme.

From the slipcase: This international pictorial survey takes modern graphic art from its origins through present-day achievements and concludes with a look into the future.

Although "graphic art" is limited here to art in the service of advertising, there is no limit to the artistic value of the means employed -- this is a selection of the best work in the field, past and present.

Contemporary graphic art -- work done since the end of the World War II -- is presented in the second, and more comprehensive, part of the book. It includes a wide range of media and techniques, among which are:

Newspaper advertisements, leaflets, catalogues, posters, displays, lettering, packages, business stationary, trade markes and devices.

In their look into the future, the editors conceive that the possibilities of concentration, simplification and integration comprise the most important task that may be achieved -- a challenge to designers everywhere.

Contents
Is Commercial Art a True Art?
The Primitives
The Beginnings
The Break-through
The Present includes sections: the trademark, the newspaper advertisement, the customer magazine, the prospectus, the goods, the book jacket and the poster
The Future includes sections: J. R. Geigy AG Basle, Knoll International New York, Ulm University Extension, Reemstma Hamburg, St-Raphael Paris, Feller AG Horgen/Zurich and Boite a musique Basle
Register of Names

Designers include Peter Behrens, J. R. Witzel, Edouard Manet, Felix Valloton, Toulouse-Lautrec, Jules Cheret, Pierre Bonnard, Theophile Steinlen, Alphonse Mucha, Bruno Paul, Godefroy, Beggarstaff Brothers, Emil Hardmeier, Aleardo Villa, Aubrey Beardsley, William Bradley, Henry van de Velde, Alfred Roller, Edward Penfield, Burkhard Mangold, Leo Eible, Ludwig Hohlwein, Carl Moos, Geneve Reimann, Lucian Bernhard, J. R. Witzel, Hans Rudi Erdt, Eduard Stiefel, Emile Cardinaux, Otto Baumberger, Leonetto Cappiello, Nicklaus Stocklin, A. M. Cassandre, Peter Behrens, Max Burchartz, Ladislav Sutnar, Theo van Doesburg, Tristan Tzara, Kurt Schwitters, Herbert Bayer, Walter Seifert, Piet Zwart, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Johannes Mohlzahn, Paul Schuitema, Jan Tschichold, Hans Leistikow, El Lissitzky, Kluzis, Max Bill, H. N. Werkman, Will Burtin, Johannes Canis, Anton Stankowski, Walter Kach, Ernst Keller, Heiri Steiner, F. H. Ehmke, Augusto Giacometti, Hans Arp and Walter Cyliax, Alfred Williman, Hermann Eidenbenz, Theo Ballmer, Ernst Keller, Alexeiff, Anderson, Charles Paine, Francis Bernard, Herbert Matter, Ladislav Biro, E. McKnight-Kauffer, Aage Rasmussen, Max Schmid, Eduard Schupp, Hans Schleger, Remo Muratore, Man Ray, William H. Campbell, Jean Carlu, Jacques Nathan, Joseph Binder, Marcel Wyss, Carl B. Graf, Otto Treumann, Ralph E. Eckerstrom, Carlo Vivarelli, Armin Hofmann, Bob Gill, Albe Steiner, William Golden, Herbert Leupin, Victor N. Cohen, Pierre Boucher, Erberto Carboni, F. H. K. Henrion, N. W. Ayer & Son Agency, Lawrence G. Gumbinner Agency, Pierre LaCombe, Hans Neuburg, Geyer Advertising Inc. Agency, Giovanni Pintori, Jean Bourges Mayfield and Bob Gill, Gottfried Honegger-Lavater, Franco Grignani, Paul Rand, Louis Dorfsman, Saul Bass, Lester Beall, Bradbury Thompson, Richard P. Lohse, Siegfried Odermatt, Erik Nitsche, George Giusti, Walter H. Allner, Joseph Muller-Brockmann, Tom Eckersley, Emil Ruder, Igildo G. Biesele, Gerard Ifert, Otl Aicher, Herbert leupin, Charles Loupot and Karl Gerstner among others.

LoadingUpdating...