ARTS AND ARCHITECTURE, July 1945
John Entenza [Editor], Herbert Matter [Cover Designer]
John Entenza [Editor]: ARTS AND ARCHITECTURE. Los Angeles: John D. Entenza, 1945. Volume 62, number 6, July 1945. Slim folio. Stapled printed wrappers. 52 pp. Illustrated text and articles. Cover by Herbert Matter (who was employed by the Eames Office in Venice at the time). Layout and typography by Robin Park. Textblock printed on fragile newsprint, with middle [3] 4-page signature loose and laid in. Wrappers lightly rubbed and worn: a very good copy.
9.75 x 12.75 vintage magazine with 52 pages of editorial content and advertisments from leading purveyors of West Coast midcentury modernism, circa 1945. Staff photography by Julius Shulman.
Contents:
- Full-page Alvin Lustig ad for H. G. Knoll Associates
- Articles
- Evsa Model’s American City: Harriet Janis
- Contemporary Music In Film: Walter Rubsamen
- Architecture
- Two Desert Houses: John Porter Clark & Albert Frey
- Two Vacation Houses: Harry Weese and John Weese
- Case Study Houses No. 3, Interiors by William Wilson Wurster and Theodore Bernardi
- Special Features
- Textile Studies: Jill Mills Mitchell, Ray Eames, Harry Bertoia, Shirle Rapson
- Abstract Sculpture: Alexander Girard, 2 pages and 8 examples!
- Art
- Books
- Cinema
- Music
- Music in the Cinema
- Notes in Passing
- New Developments
- California Council of Architects
- Building Industry Directory
- and more.
Editorial Associates for Arts and Architecture included Herbert Matter and Charles Eames. Julius Shulman was the staff photographer. The Editorial Advisory Board included William Wilson Wurster,Richard Neutra, Isamu Noguchi, eero Saarinen, Gardner Dailey, Sumner Spaulding, Mario Corbett, Esther McCoy, John Funk, Gregory Ain, George Nelson, Gyorgy Kepes, marcel Breuer, Raphael Soriano, Ray Eames, Garret Eckbo, Edgar Kaufman, Jr. and others luminaries of the mid-century modern movement.
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, Raphael Soriano, Whitney Smith, Sumner Spaulding, John Rex, Rodney Walker, William Wilson Wurster, Theodore 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 groundbreakers.
Herbert Matter (1907-1983) studied with Fernand Leger and Amande Ozenfant at the Academie 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 Conde 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 Conde 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.