10 COPERTINE DI CAMPO GRAFICO 1933 – 1939
Centro di Studi Grafici di Milano
[Centro di Studi Grafici di Milano]: 10 COPERTINE DI CAMPO GRAFICO 1933 – 1939. Milan: Centro di Studi Grafici di Milano, 2009. First edition [anno cultutale 2009]. Gold paper portfolio with title sticker [as issued] housing 10 offset lithographs and one title plate. Gold portfolio lightly shelf worn with a few scratches and gentle wear. The 10 plates lightly handled, but a very good set or better set.
[10] 11.68 x 16.5-inch offset litho reproductions of Campo Grafico covers reproduced at full size, with a printed title sheet and housed in Publishers gold card stock portfolio. A lovely tribute beautifully printed in Milan.
The portfolio plates include:
CAMPO GRAFICO [Rivista di Estetica e di Tecnica Grafica]
Year I, No. 1, January 1933
Cover by Carlo Dradi, Battista Pallavera, Attilio Rossi
Year I, No. 3, March 1933
Cover by Carlo Dradi and Attilio Rossi
Year II, No. 12, December 1934
Cover by Carlo Dradi And Attilio Rossi - photo taken by Boggeri studio
Year III, No. 4, April 1935
Cover by Battista Pallavera - Photo signed by Renner
Year III, No. 9, September 1935
Cover by Luigi Oriani (Scuola del Libro di Milano student)
Year IV, No. 1, January 1936
Cover by Alberto Gennari
Year IV, No. 5, May 1936
Cover by Luigi Veronesi
Year V, No. 3, March 1937
Cover by Grete Stern Coppola y Horacio Coppola - Buenos Aires
Year VI, No. 5, May 1938
Cover by Remo Muratore
Year VII, No. 3-4-5, March-April-May 1939
Cover by Enrico Bona
Sixty-six issues of Campo Grafico were published between 1933 and 1939 by a loosely confederated group of Italian printers, typographers, designers, and photographers. Subtitled “Magazine Of Aesthetic And Graphical Technique” the contents were designed and printed during off-hours at various presses throughout Italy and assembled and distributed in a similarly freeform fashion. The results were pure examples of Maud Lavin's phrase “design in the service of commerce,” and a magnificent demonstration of the unity of the arts and technological life.
The collective paid tribute to the homegrown aesthetic of Marinetti’s Futurism, but was forward-looking enough to explore contemporary trends such as PhotoMontage, Collage and the ideology of the New Typography, while -- in the spirit of inclusiveness -- mixing in every other “Ism” of the 1930s Avant-Garde.
Few copies of Campo Grafico survived, and the 1983 Milan exhibition codified the legacy of this superb Graphic Arts journal. Campo Grafico is an essential document of a nearly forgotten collective enterprise that mirrored the glory and the turmoil of its time. Our highest recommendation.