ADVERTISING ARTS
May 1934
Frederick C. Kendall [Editor]
Frederick C. Kendall [Editor]: ADVERTISING ARTS. New York: Advertising and Selling Publishing Co., May 1934. Original edition. Wire-spiral binding. Letterpressed thick wrappers. 48 pp. Text and elaborately-produced advertisements. Wrappers lightly scratched and worn with one chip to lower corner [see scan]. Photomontage cover design by John Atherton. A very good or better copy. Rare.
8.5 x 11.5 wire-spiral bound magazine with 48 pages of text and advertisements. "Devoted to the design of advertising, the creation of printing, and the styling of merchandise and packages." -- the Publishers.
"Advertising Arts" promulgated a progressive design approach (and style) unique to the United States during the early Thirties, called Streamline. Unlike the elegant austerity of the Bauhaus, where economy and simplicity were paramount, Streamline was a uniquely American futuristic mannerism based on sleek aerodynamic design born of science and technology. Planes, trains and cars were given the swooped-back appearance that both symbolized and physically accelerated speed. Consequently, type and image were designed to echo that sensibility, the result being that the airbrush became the medium of choice and all futuristic traits, be they practical or symbolic, were encouraged. The clarion call was to "Make it Modern" -- and "it " was anything that could be designed. – Steven Heller
- Frontis: Full-page Black Cat rotogravure by Martin Munkacsi
- Whither Industrial Design? by Earnest Elmo Calkins. Illustrated examples of a prefabricated house by Holden & McLaughlin Associates, Lurelle Guild, George Sakier, Nathan George Horwitt and Russel Wright.
- Four Illustrations from 'The Travels of Marco Polo" by W. A. Dwiggins. Letterpress printing by The printing House of Leo Hart.
- Open letter Re: American Wines. Label designs by John Atherton, Gustav Jensen, Clarence Hornung, Louis Koster, Tony Bonagura and Roy Shelsdon.
- Paper Requirements for Gravure printing by E. K. Hunt
- Two Mexican Photographs by Anton Breuhl. Sheet-fed gravure by the Beck Engraving Company.
- Trademarking Government Activities. Five marks by Clarence Hornung.
- Exhibition by Charles Coiner
- Prize Winners at 13th Annual Art Directors Exhibition. Includes work by Alexey Brodovitch [ x 2 ], Ludwig Bemelmans, John Funk, John Atherton, Boris Artzybasheff, Miguel Covarrubias, Robert Fawcett, Victor Keppler and others.
- I Believe in Design by Grover Whalen. Words of wisdom from noted Union-buster and President of the New York World Fair Corporation.
- Design for the Railroad by Walter Dorwin Teague
- Case Histories by T. J. Maloney. Illustrated industrial design case studies for an Electric Fan, Conover Dishwasher, and an Automatic Razor Blade Sharpener.
- Glass
John Carlton Atherton (1900 – 1952) was a commercial artist born in Brainard, Minnesota on June 7th, 1900.After a brief service in the U.S. Navy during WWI, Atherton moved to San Francisco, California in 1920. There, he attended College of the Pacific and The California School of Fine Arts and practiced his techniques in various West-Coast studios.
Upon winning a five-hundred dollar first prize award in the Bohemian Club’s annual exhibition in 1929, Atherton moved to New York City to test his ability as a commercial artist. He became widely successful while designing advertisements for companies such as General Motors, Shell Oil, Container Corporation of America, and Dole. But after 1936, encouraged by friend Alexander Brook, an acclaimed New York realist painter, Atherton returned to the fine arts. This new work primarily consisted of symbolic, often bleak landscapes that were becoming a favorite subject of the new surrealist movement in America.
Atherton presented his first solo exhibition in New York’s Julien Levy Gallery in 1938 and the artist continued to be represented by the renowned gallery throughout the 1930s and 1940s. Other contemporary artists also showing at the gallery were Max Ernst, Joseph Cornell, Frida Kahlo, and Pavel Tchelitchew, who together supported a decidedly nonconformist movement. Artist Dorothea Tanning once described the prestige of the gallery: “Of all the gallery activity on Fifty-Seventh Street, where everything happened in those days, it was the Julien Levy Gallery that was truly making art history, the place where it was ‘at.’ ”
Atherton’s reputation increased to a national scale when he designed the art deco stone lithograph poster for the 1939 World’s Fair that strikingly depicted Earth and its atmospheric layers in the lap of Liberty. More recognition followed when, in 1941, the Museum of Modern Art headed a National Defense Poster Competition, which was co-founded by the Army Air Corps and the Treasury Department. Atherton won the first prize in the Defense Bond category for his poster “Buy a Share in America” depicting one hand shaking the hand of America above a factory. Shortly after, in 1943, Atherton placed in the prestigious “Artists for Victory” Competition. Amidst over fourteen-thousand entries, Atherton’s “The Black Horse” won a three-thousand dolor fourth prize award. The acclaimed artist brought his popular designs into high circulation once he began creating posters and covers for such publications as Fortune, Saturday Evening Post, and Holiday.
Atherton had no shame in blurring the line between commercial and fine art, though illustrators were (and still are) often considered lesser artists. He said in his statement for the seminal 1943 Museum of Modern Art exhibition, American Realists and Magic Realists, “Any painting lives or will last because it is well painted, regardless of whether it is a potato or a human body. By this I do not mean mere technical dexterity but painting which builds the spirit of the forms.”
For his fine art gallery pieces, Atherton retained the defined forms from his technical commercial experience but instead placed his subjects in surrealist situations. Atherton was highly influenced by the magic realist movement that had roots in European surrealism but carried distinctly American undertones. While other magic realists, such as John Wilde, focused on themes of agriculture and fertility, Atherton often opted for more industrial landscapes. His practiced exactitude aided him in this effort and in such pieces as Rubber…and the National City Bank of New York. [Katie Kinnear]
During Walter Dorwin Teague's time, industrial designers were transforming ordinary objects by marrying materials, technique and function to produce the simplest and most efficient forms possible. The resulting products had an appearance that was a stark visual break from the past. Practitioners of this style of design, known as streamlining, art moderne or art deco, did away with most nonfunctional elements in favor of sleek designs. Their efforts transformed everything from automobiles, trains, ships and airplanes to cameras, buildings, furniture and appliances.
The trend began in the mid-1920s as an attempt by manufacturers to increase sales of consumer goods in a saturated marketplace by giving them a distinctive and modern look. At the most idealistic level, as exemplified by Teague, the new designs and the improved function they represented could be a force for good. "A better world than we have ever known can and will be built," Teague said. "Our better world may be expected to make equally available for everybody such rare things as interesting, stimulating work, emancipation from drudgery and a gracious setting for daily life."
Walter Dorwin Teague (1883 - 1960) detailed his industrial and artistic philosophy in Design This Day, first published in 1940. His book appeared at about the time Hitler was invading Norway--before the United States entered World War II--and toward the end of the Great Depression. "We walk between catastrophe and apotheosis," he declared in Design This Day. "In spite of the mighty destructive powers that threaten us, our vision of a desirable life was never so clear and our means of realizing it never so ample."
Along with designers Norman Bel Geddes, Henry Dreyfuss and Raymond Loewy, Teague helped create the industrial design profession in America, defining the visual character of the 1930s and 1940s in the process.
He started his career in graphic arts, painting signs and drawing for catalogs, and later worked in advertising. A 1926 trip to Paris introduced him to new ideas in design. He returned believing that unity of design could create a more orderly world and decided to become an industrial designer. Teague started his own industrial design firm and received his first commission in 1927, designing cameras for Eastman Kodak. The relationship lasted for 30 years.
In 1936 he placed his signature on American roadsides. Texaco replaced its regionally styled gas stations with a single design--green and white porcelain-enamel stations designed by Teague. The clean look, highlighted with red stars, was easily identified by motorists. Although some of Teague's utopian ideals and radical design concepts never materialized, he was clearly a visionary. And we are still intrigued by his desire to build a better world.