ARTS AND ARCHITECTURE: April 1947
Staff photographer Julius Shulman’s Copy
John Entenza [Editor], Herbert Matter [Cover Designer]
John Entenza [Editor]: ARTS AND ARCHITECTURE. Los Angeles: John D. Entenza, Volume 64, number 4, April 1947. Original edition. Slim folio. Stapled printed wrappers. 54 pp. Illustrated text and articles. Cover by Herbert Matter. Layout and typography by Robin Park. Staff photographer Julius Shulman’s mailing label to rear panel with cancelled postage stamp. Wrappers lightly worn with a faint coffee cup [?] stain: a very good or better copy with an exceptional provenance.
9.75 x 12.75 vintage magazine with 50 pages of editiorial content and advertisments from leading purveyors of West Coast midcentury modernism, circa 1947. Staff photography by Julius Shulman. In terms of decor, there is none of that Chippendale jive here -- every residential interior is decked out in full midcentury glory.
Contents:
- A Beach House by Raphael Soriano
- Architecture Today: Erik Mendelsohn
- The Planning of Detention Homes: Milton J. Caughey, Architect
- Case Study House 16: Rodney Walker. photographed by Julius Shulman.
- From the 14 Americans Catalog [MoMA]: work by Isamu Noguchi, David Hare and Theodore Roszak with statements by the artists.
- Furniture: Knoll Associates. Work by Florence Knoll, Eero Saarinen and Abel Sorensen.
- Art: Grace Clements
- San Francisco Notes: Dorothy Puccinelli Craveth
- Cinema: Robert Joseph
- Music: Peter Yates
- Merit Specified, Case Study House 16
- Product Specified, Case Study House 16
- Notes in Passing
- New Developments
- Art: Lengthy and perceptive review of Walter Paepcke, Egbert Jacobson and Paul Rand [Designer]: MODERN ART IN ADVERTISING [DESIGNS FOR CONTAINER CORPORATION OF AMERICA]. Chicago: Container Corporation of America/Paul Theobald, 1946.
Editorial Associates for Arts and Architecture included Charles Eames and Benjamin Baldwin. Julius Shulman was the staff photographer. The Editorial Advisory Board included William Wilson Wurster, Richard Neutra, Eero Saarinen, Sumner Spaulding, Gregory Ain, Ray Eames, Garrett Eckbo, Herbert Matter and others luminaries of the midcentury modern movement.
American photographer Julius Shulman's (1910 – 2009) images of Californian architecture have burned themselves into the retina of the 20th century. A book on modern architecture without Shulman is inconceivable. Some of his architectural photographs, like the iconic shots of Frank Lloyd Wright's or Pierre Koenig's remarkable structures, have been published countless times. The brilliance of buildings like those by Charles Eames, as well as those of his close friend, Richard Neutra, was first brought to light by Shulman's photography.
The clarity of his work demanded that architectural photography had to be considered as an independent art form. Each Shulman image unites perception and understanding for the buildings and their place in the landscape. The precise compositions reveal not just the architectural ideas behind a building's surface, but also the visions and hopes of an entire age. A sense of humanity is always present in his work, even when the human figure is absent from the actual photographs.
Today, a great many of the buildings documented by Shulman have disappeared or been crudely converted, but the thirst for his pioneering images is stronger than ever before. This is a vivid journey across six decades of great architecture and classic photography through the famously incomparable eyes of Julius Shulman.
“Some of his architectural photographs, like the iconic shots of Frank Lloyd Wright's or Pierre Koenig's remarkable structures, have been published countless times. The brilliance of buildings like those by Charles Eames, as well as those of his close friends, Richard Neutra and Raphael Soriano, was first brought to light by Shulman's photography. The clarity of his work demanded that architectural photography had to be considered as an independent art form. Each Shulman image unites perception and understanding for the buildings and their place in the landscape. The precise compositions reveal not just the architectural ideas behind a building's surface, but also the visions and hopes of an entire age. A sense of humanity is always present in his work, even when the human figure is absent from the actual photographs.” [Wikipedia]
In 1938, John Entenza joined California Arts and Architecture magazine as editor. By 1943, Entenza and his art director Alvin Lustig had completely overhauled the magazine and renamed it Arts and Architecture. Arts and Architecture championed all that was new in the arts, with special emphasis on emerging modernist architecture in Southern California.
One of the pivotal figures in the growth of modernism in California, Entenza's most lasting contribution was his sponsorship of the Case Study Houses project, which featured the works of architects Thornton Abell, Conrad Buff, Calvin Straub, Donald Hensman, Charles Eames, Eero Saarinen, J. R. Davidson, A. Quincy Jones, frederick Emmons, Don Knorr, Edward killinsworth, Jules Brady, Waugh Smith, pierre Koenig, Kemper Nomland, Kemper Nomland Jr., Richard neutra, Ralph Rapson, Raphale Soriano, Whitney Smith, Sumner Sapulding, John Rex, Rodney Walker, William Wilson Wurster, Theordore Bernardi and Craig Ellwood. Arts and Architecture also ran articles and interviews on artists and designers such as Jackson Pollock, Robert Motherwell, George Nakashima, George Nelson and many other ground-breakers.
Herbert Matter (1907-1983) studied with Fernand Léger and Amédée Ozenfant at the Académie Moderne in Paris in the late 1920s before returning to Switzerland to design a series of Swiss travel posters which illustrate his signature photomontage technique. When he arrived in the United States in 1936 his first clients were the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), and the publisher Condé Nast. Other clients included the Guggenheim Museum (1958–1968), Knoll Furniture (1946–1966), and the New Haven Railroad (1954). During this time Matter became a tenured professor at Yale and helped to shape the university’s photography and graphic design program (1952–1976). Matter’s advanced techniques in graphic design and photography became part of a new visual narrative that began in the 1930s, which have since evolved into familiar design idioms such as overprinting—where an image extends beyond the frame—and the bold use of color, size, and placement in typography. Such techniques often characterize both pre-war European Modernism and the post-war expression of that movement in the United States.
"Herbert's background is fascinating and enviable," said Paul Rand. "He was surrounded by good graphics and learned from the best." Therefore, it is no wonder that the famed posters designed for the Swiss Tourist Office soon after his return had the beauty and intensity of Cassandre and the geometric perfection of Corbu, wed to a very distinctive personal vision.
In 1936, Matter was offered roundtrip passage to the United States as payment for his work with a Swiss ballet troupe. He spoke no English, yet traveled across the United States. When the tour was over, he decided to remain in New York. At the urging of a friend who worked at the Museum of Modern Art, Matter went to see Alexey Brodovitch, who had been collecting the Swiss travel posters (two of which were hanging on Brodovitch's studio wall). Matter soon began taking photographs for Harper's Bazaar and Saks Fifth Avenue. Later, he affiliated himself with a photographic studio, "Studio Associates," located near the Condeé Nast offices, where he produced covers and inside spreads for Vogue.
During World War II, Matter made striking posters for Container Corporation of America. In 1944, he became the design consultant at Knoll, molding its graphic identity for over 12 years. As Alvin Eisenman, head of the Design Department at Yale and long-time friend, points out: "Herbert had a strong feeling for minute details, and this was exemplified by the distinguished typography he did for the Knoll catalogues."
In 1952, he was asked by Eisenman to join the Yale faculty as professor of photography and graphic design. "He was a marvelous teacher," says Eisenman. "His roster of students included some of the most important names in the field today." At Yale, he tried his hand at architecture, designing studio space in buildings designed by Louis Kahn and Paul Rudolf. "He was good at everything he tried to do," continues Eisenman. In 1954, he was commissioned to create the corporate identity for the New Haven Railroad. The ubiquitous "NH" logo, with its elongated serifs, was one of the most identifiable symbols in America.