Collotype
Publicite Presente Par A.M. Cassandre (L’art International D’ Aujourd’ Hui #12)
Max Burchartz
Max Burchartz: Collotype from the Portfolio PUBLICITE PRESENTE PAR A.M. CASSANDRE (L’ART INTERNATIONAL D’ AUJOURD’ HUI #12). Paris: Paris: Editions d’Art Charles Moreau, c. 1929. First edition [ Max Burchartz, Allemagne / ANNONCE, Plate no. 3]. An Original anthology of modern advertising artwork selected by A. M. Cassandre. A collotype in good condition, with a chipped corner, mild edgewear and mild age-toning to edges.
Plate size is 9.875 x12.75 (25.0825 cm x 32.385 cm) and blank on verso. Printed by Heliotype (collotype) at Editions d’Art Charles Moreau in Paris.
The PUBLICITE portfolio consisted of 49 color and black and whiteplates selected by A. M.Cassandre to present an overview of Avant-Garde influences in the advertising arts (posters, typography, book design, announcements, etc.) circa 1929. A magnificent and scarce production produced for Charles Moreau’s L’ART INTERNATIONAL D’ AUJOURD’ HUI portfolio series.
From Wikipedia: Max Hubert Innocenz Maria Burchartz (1887 – 1961) was a German photographer. After his basic schooling he received training in his father's weaving mill and studied at a textile technical school as well as an art school. He studied advertising and art and in 1907 started studying at an art academy in Düsseldorf, at that time experimenting with impressionism but left the academy to join the First World War. After the War he withdrew to Blankenhain and resumed painting. His paintings reflected the quiet, rural life of Blankenhain, but maintained abstract influences, (e.g. Strasse in Blankenhain).
In 1922 Burchartz worked with Theo van Doesburg on a still-life course at the Bauhaus in Weimar, a break from his past work and turned him toward the 'modern trend', which was from then on expressed in a constructional style. While at the Bauhaus, he also worked as a translator.
In 1924 Burchartz moved to the Ruhr District where he set up the first modern advertising agency in Germany with Johannes Canis on November 1, 1924. He dedicated himself to the new typography and color design of the building. Artistic and economic success soon followed. The first customer of the agency was the Bochumer association. Burchartz developed a new layout style that blended typography, photography, and photo collages.
In 1926 Burchartz began expanding his artistic career. His subject matter grew and he began to sketch furniture along with his previous subjects. He also began working for the German Work Federation and became an active journalist. Burchartz began working for a company called Wehag that made door handles and fittings. He created many drafts for the company and shaped the development of the enterprise.
In April 1927, Burchartz finally received a degree in typography at the Folkwang Schule. Later that year he joined the architect Alfred Fischer, who built churches and the Hans Sachs house. Burchartz developed a color control system for the corridors of the house and thereby created the (presumed) first example of applied Signaletic in a public building. In other words, each floor is assigned one of the primary colors and labelled 'red floor, green floor, etc...'. After World War II they were painted over and forgotten and the style was not 'rediscovered' until the 90's.
Although Burchartz can be considered the pioneer of modern design and can be compared to older artists such as Peter Behrens and Anton Stankowski, he never received the same fame. Many of today's communication designs, such as the color control system, are based on the work of Max Burchartz.
Collotype (a dichromate-based process, also called Albertype, Artotype, Autotype, bromoil, Dallastype, Heliotype, Levytype, Paynetype, phototype, photoglyphic) is the most accurate and beautiful method of photomechanical reproduction yet invented. Collotype can produce results difficult to distinguish from actual photographs -- many old postcards are collotypes.
Collotypes have the advantage that they can render continuous graduations of tone without screen intervention. Making and printing of collotype plates is skilled and expensive work and the sensitized gelation surface is too delicate to produce more than two thousand impressions. For these reasons, collotype has been used for luxury publications and, since World War II, has been largely abandoned for other commercial purposes.
As a testament to its quality, many prints with an impressively high image resolution still remain from the Collotype era (circa 1880 to 1970) in perfect archival condition.
Collotype was consistently employed on a relatively small scale throughout most of the twentieth century as a specialist medium for the highest quality book illustrations and single-sheet fine art reproductions. Although its photographically accurate printing characteristics and exceptional colour qualities remain (even in the digital age) largely unparalleled, its economic viability was gradually eroded during the latter half of the twentieth century by faster and cheaper methods of print.
The ability of collotype to print in continuous tone without the use of a halftone screen enabled full colour images to be printed with far more fidelity than any of the subsequent screened, CMYK printing processes which dominate the print world today. Because of this it was able to achieve a wider colour gamut than is currently possible through digital imaging. A further advantage also lay in collotypes’ reliance on highly pigmented inks. These were far purer than modern offset litho inks, containing none of the synthetic additives now used to maintain maximum efficiency for high-speed commercial production.
Recommended reading: Studio Collotype by Kent B. Kirby and The Practice of Collotype by Thomas A. Wilson.