MÉCANO Nos. 1 - 4/5
LEIDEN 1922 – 1923
I. K. Bonset [Theo van Doesburg]
I.K. Bonset aka Theo van Doesburg: MÉCANO Nos. 1 - 4/5. LEIDEN 1922 – 1923. Koln: Walther Konig, 1979. First edition thus. Text in French, German and Dutch. A near fine black cloth portfolio case stamped in red and silver containing 4 near fine reprinted issues of Mecano and a near fine publisher's pamphlet. The silver ink on the portfolio is lightly rubbed and the introductory pamphlet shows the former owners circular emboss. Out-of-print.
6.75 x 10.25 black cloth portfolio case with Mecano 1 - 3 [(3) 12.75" x 20.5 two-sided sheets, fold down to 5 x 6.5"]; Mecano 4/5 [6.25" x 10" staple-bound booklet with 16 b/w pages]; and the publisher's information, introduction and an index [6.25" x 10" single-fold pamphlet].
Mécano was edited by Theo van Doesburg [I.K. Bonset] and originally published by De Stijl, Leiden. It was distributed as a supplement to De Stijl and also sold separately. Under the pseudonym I.K. Bonset, Theo van Doesburg published 4 issues of the Dadaist magazine Meecano which "stressed creative principles and new art alongside some of the more familiar Dadaist rejection of the past." [Description from the web site for dada-companion].
Contents of the Portfolio Case
- Jaune, Geel, Gelb, Yellow [(1922); 12.75" x 20.5 two-sided sheet, folds down to 5 x 6.5"]
- Blue, Blauw, Blau, Blue [(1922); 12.75" x 20.5 two-sided sheet, folds down to 5 x 6.5"]
- No. 3 Rouge, Rood, Rot, Red [(1922); 12.75" x 20.5 two-sided sheet, folds down to 5 x 6.5"]
- No 4/5 White, Blanc, Wit, Weiss [(1923); 6.25" x 10" staple-bound booklet with 16 b/w pages]
- Publisher's Pamphlet including reprint information, an introduction and an index [6.25" x 10" single-fold pamphlet]
Contributors included Hans Arp, Umberto Boccioni, I.K. Bonset, Jean Crotti, Theo van Doesburg, Paul Eluard, F.T. Marinetti, Piet Mondriaan, Francis Picabia, Ezra Pond, Man Ray, Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes, Tristan Tzara, Nicolas Beauduin, Serge Charchoune, Raoul Hausmann, Wyndham Lewis, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Peter Rohl, Max Ernst, Benjamin Peret, Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes, Kurt Schwitters, Rosie Spotts, Georges Vantongerloo, Malcolm Cowley, Cornelis van Eesteren, Julius Evola, Richard Roland Holst, Pierre de Masot and Edouard Léon Théodore Mesens.
“Van Doesburg’s fascination with Dada, a movement he understood as a mix of nonobjective art and blasphemous scandal, grew steadily throughout [1920]. Instead of modifying his reputation as an advocate of morally uplifting abstraction, changing the course of De Stijl or abandoning it altogether, van Doesburg decided to channel his newfound, abject love of Dada into a secret alter ego. In a letter to Tzara that June, van Doesburg mentioned casually that ‘one of my literary collaborators, I. K. Bonset, had the intention of establishing a dadaist journal, but he lacks the money, time and people.’ Van Doesburg kept the character Bonset in circulation for many years thereafter and succeeded in hiding the fiction for more than two years because, as Craig Eliason observes, he interacted with fellow dadaists largely through the mail . . . . Acting on behalf of his alter ego, van Doesburg submissions from dadaists and ex-dadaists in Berlin, Paris and Hannover; Bauhaus master László Moholy-Nagy; founding poets of the little reviews ‘Blast’ (London) and ‘Broom’ (New York); and others. Such an eclectic group would never have collaborated in person, for the dynamics of direct interaction favor declarations of unity and shared guiding principles (or bitter arguments, purges, and rejections.) With his contributors pulled together from remote locations, however, and Bonset as his fence, so to speak, van Doesburg mapped a separate Dada constellation that held an international variety of advanced artists within a common orbit” (Witkovsky).
“The founding of ‘Mécano’ is closely linked with the Düsseldorf Congress of International Progressive Artists in May 1922, and the unexpected revival of Dada.... Van Doesburg had founded the international review ‘De Stijl’ with Mondrian in 1917 and it had become the foremost organ in Europe for Constructivist art. ‘Mécano’ was produced, coinciding with the subversion of the Düsseldorf congress, to ‘poke fun at the solemnities of the Bauhaus.’ (‘Begrüssung,’ in the final issue, signed by van Doesburg, Mondrian and van Eesteren, attacks the Bauhaus.) Van Doesburg used his pseudonym I.K. Bonset for the ‘gérant littéraire,’ or literary editor of ‘Mécano,’ presenting Theo van Doesburg as the mécanicien plastique.’ He had already published Dada poetry as I.K. Bonset in ‘De Stijl’; indeed the whole of the November 1921 issue was devoted to an ‘anthologie Bonset’.... The ‘Mécano’ contributors were mainly ex-Dadaists like Tzara, Hausmann, Ribemont-Dessaignes, Picabia, Arp, but there were also a number of futurists and neo-plastic artists, and a few constructivists like Moholy-Nagy....“‘Mécano’ was published by ‘De Stijl,’ and was advertised in early numbers of ‘Merz’ side by side with it. It is like a Dada supplement to ‘De Stijl,’ but it betrays its origins in, for example, the choice of primary colours plus white to identify each issue (the yellow number is succeeded by the blue, the red and the white numbers), the chosen colours of the neo-plastic painters and architects” (Ades).
“‘Mécano’ was a mixture of subversion and aversion. A manifesto which van Doesburg had introduced into ‘De Stijl’ appeared under the pseudonym I.K. Bonset, supporting Dada typography as the basis of a new poetic language while attacking the Russian Constructivist notion of utilitarian or productivist art. The Bauhaus also came under fire for its ‘solemnities.’ But ‘Mécano’ was more than a vehicle for negative propaganda. Van Doesburg saw the power in graphic design. He experimented with type and layout in a fairly disciplined though free-form manner that commingled raucous Dada and rational Constructivist principles, resulting in a more structured, legible version of Dada ad hoc-ism” (Heller).