GRAPHIC ARTS USA. Tom Geismar [Logo Designer], United States Information Agency. New York, 1963.

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GRAPHIC ARTS USA

United States Information Agency, Tom Geismar [Logo Designer]

Tom Geismar [Logo Designer]: GRAPHIC ARTS USA [translated title]. [New York: Amalgamated Lithographers of America, Local No. 1, 1963]. Original edition. Text in Cyrillic script. Stapled English translation typescript laid in. Printed portfolio case containing 8 items in a variety of formats, all published. [4] 16-page brochures, one 8-page brochure, one single-fold poster, one twice-folded poster,  and one triple folded calendar poster.   Portfolio items in uniformly very good or better condition, with occassional spotting and one cover crease. Portfolio case  edgeworn with a chip to spine heel and expected handling wear. A nearly fine set housed in a good example of the Publishers Portfolio case. Rare.

[8] 8.5 x 11.5 printed samples in a variety of formats housed in Publishers Portfolio case featuring the justifiably famous logo by Tom Geismar. GRAPHIC ARTS USA was an ambitious traveling exhibition for the Soviet Union commissioned by the United States Information Agency at the height of the Cold War in 1963.

“This portfolio presents the work of many of America’s leading graphic artists. It was produced entirely by lithography as a contribution of the Amalgamated Lithographers of America, Local No. 1 to international communication.”

“Local No. 1 of the Amalgamated Lithographers of America is an organization of eighty-five hundred trade union craftsmen in the New York metropolitan area. They are engaged in every aspect of modern lithography in the graphic arts — photographers, artists, strippers, platemakers adn pressmen.”  — Jacket Accreditation

GRAPHIC ARTS USA Contents [all items folded to 8.5 x 11.5 unless otherwise noted]:

Graphic Designers: 16-page stapled booklet in printed self wrappers with full-page work examples by Ray Komai, Saul Bass, Herb Lubalin, Rudolph de Harak, Tony Palladino, Bob Gill, Leo Lionni, Gene Federico, Jack Wolfgang Beck, Goerge Tscherny, Walter Allner, John Alcorn, Tom Geismar, Ivan Chermayeff and Paul Rand. Gene Federico calling card with penciled intials laid in.

Prints: 16-page stapled booklet in printed self wrappers with full-page examples by Garo Antreasian, Gabor Peterdi, Seong Moy, Adolph Dehn, Geln Alps, Jacob Landau, Ben Shahn, Fritz Eichenberg, Dean Meeker, Adja Yunkers, Sister Mary Corita, Gerson Leiber, Misch Kohn, And Ansei Uchima.

Illustration: 16-page stapled booklet in printed self wrappers with full-page examples by Jim McMullan, Gerry Gersten, Austin Briggs, John Groth, René Bouché, Eugene Karlin, Harvey Schmidt, Maurice Sendak, Ellen Raskin, Bob Peak, Phil Hays, Thomas B. Allen and Bernard Fuchs.

Humorous Illustration: 16-page stapled booklet in printed self wrappers with full-page examples by Saul Steinberg, Lionel Kalish, Louis Silverstein, Roy Doty, Saul Mandel, Abner Dean, R. O. Blechman, Jerome Kuhl, Walter Einsel, Edward Sorel, Roger Duvoisin, Roy McKie, Ernie Pintoff, Lou Meyers, and Robert Osborn.

Artists at Work: 8-page stapled booklet in printed self wrappers with black and white photographs by Jay Maisel of Gabor Peterdi, Saul Steinberg, Jules Feiffer, Robert Osborn, Raymond Loewy & William Snaith, Robert Weaver, Ben Shahn, Seymour Chwast & Milton Glaser, Joseph Low, Saul Bass, George Tscherny and Saul Mandel.

Small Fold-Out: Single-folded sheet printed 1 x 4 with a recto illustration by Ben Shahn and a verso painting by Leonard Weisgard.

Large Fold-Out: Twice-folded sheet printed 2 x 4 with a recto linocut by Joseph Low and a verso painting by Jan Balet.

1964 Calendar: Thrice-folded sheet printed 2 x 4 with design and illustration by Push Pin Studios: Seymour Chwast, Milton Glaser and Isadore Seltzer. Calendar side features color illustrations of Nijinsky, Isadora Duncan, P. Tchaikovsky, George Gershwin, E. Metchnikoff, George Washington Carver, L. Bakst, E. Hicks, Sergei Eisenstein, D. W. Griffith, Nicolai Gogol and Mark Twain.  Recto side features large illustrations of Paul Bunyan and Ilya Murometz.

English Translation: 8 x 10.5 stapled 18-page typescript dated September 25, 1963 with complete translation of text and image credits. A rather invaluable piece of documentation for this elaborate production.

The United States Information Agency (USIA) existed from 1953 to 1999 as a United States agency devoted to “public diplomacy.” President Dwight D. Eisenhower established the United States Information Agency in 1953. The USIA's mission was “to understand, inform and influence foreign publics in promotion of the national interest, and to broaden the dialogue between Americans and U.S. institutions, and their counterparts abroad.”

In 1948, the Smith–Mundt Act banned domestic distribution of propaganda intended for foreign audiences, but before 1972, the U.S. government was allowed to distribute expressly domestic propaganda through Congress, independent media, and schools. The United States Information Agency (USIA) was established “to streamline the U.S. government's overseas information programs, and make them more effective.” The United States Information Agency was the largest full-service public relations organization in the world, spending over $2 billion per year to highlight America’s view, while diminishing the Soviet’s side through about 150 different countries.

Propaganda played a large role in how the United States was viewed by the world during the Cold War. American propagandists felt as though the Hollywood movie industry was destroying the image of the United States in other countries.  In response to the negative portrayal of America from communist propaganda the “USIA exist[ed] as much to provide a view of the world to the United States as it [did] to give the world a view of America.” The purpose of the USIA within the United States was to assure Americans that, “[t]he United States was working for a better world.”

President Eisenhower said, “audiences would be more receptive to the American message if they were kept from identifying it as propaganda. Avowedly propagandistic materials from the United States might convince few, but the same viewpoints presented by the seemingly independent voices would be more persuasive.”According to the Kennedy memorandum, the USIA utilized various forms of media, including "personal contact, radio broadcasting, libraries, book publication and distribution, press motion pictures, television, exhibits, English-language instruction, and others.” Through these different forms, the United States government was able to distribute and disguise the propaganda more easily and engage a greater concentration of people. [Wikipedia]

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