81 + 68 + 51 = 200 [Portfolio title]
Takashi Kono, Max Huber, Aoi Huber,
Bruno Munari [poem]
Cantù, Italy: [Max & Aoi Huber], 1987. Original edition [limited to 90 signed/numbered copies]. Portfolio with three silkscreen prints with printed tissue guards and an introductory poem [in Italian and Kanji] by Bruno Munari. The three silkscreen prints are hand numbered ’49/90’ and signed in pencil by Takashi Kono, Max Huber, and Aoi Huber, respectively. Poetry sheet signed by Bruno Munari [as issued?]. Includes a typescript poetry translation by Gene Federico. Portfolio envelope with ‘Max Huber’ inked to upper corner in unknown hand. Portfolio and silkscreens uniformly lightly tapped to lower left corners. Raking light reveals a faint crease to the blank versos of each screenprint. Tissue guards with expected faint edgewear. Overall a very good or better set.
Three silkscreen prints on thick artists paper sheets measuring 12.94 x 18.63-inches [32.86 x 47.3 cm], signed and numbered in pencil by Takashi Kono, Max Huber, and Aoi Huber housed in a limp gray paper portfolio folder and a poem by Bruno Munari included. The Munari poetry sheet is signed.
Takashi Kono is the father of Aoi Huber Kono who was the wife of Max Huber. This Portfolio is cryptically titled 81 [superscript] T + 68 [superscript] M + 51 [superscript] A = 200, a mathematical equation featuring each artists’ birth date in reference to 1987, the year of publication.
"He was a splendid mix; he had irrepressible natural talent and a faultless drawing hand; he possessed the lively candour of the eternal child; he was a true product of the Swiss School; he loved innovatory research; he boasted a lively curiosity, being quick to latch on - not without irony - to the most unpredictable ideas, and he worked with the serious precision of the first-rate professional." -- Giampiero Bosoni from MAX HUBER [Phaidon Press, 2006]
Max Huber (Switzerland, 1919 – 1992) moved to Milan in order to avoid being drafted into the Swiss army. He worked for Studio Boggeri until Italy joined the war in 1941, forcing Huber to return to his home country where he collaborated with Werner Bischof and Emil Schultness on the influential art magazine 'Du.' As a member of the art group Allianz he exhibits his abstract artwork at the Kunsthaus Zurich with Max Bill, Leo Leuppi, Richard Lohse and Camille Graeser.
After the war Huber returned to Milan where he rubbed shoulders with the postwar Italian intelligentsia [Cesare Pavese, Natalia Ginzburg, Elio Vittorini, Franco Fortini, Ettore Sottsass, Achille Castiglioni and Albe Steiner] all who shared the belief that design had the capacity to restore the human values misplaced during the war.
From 1950 to 1954 Huber worked for the department store La Rinascente, also known as "Elle Erre", the time Albert Steiner was art director of their Advertising Office. The two also worked on the VIII Triennale di Milano. With Achille Castiglioni he designed large-scale installations for RAI, Eni and Montecatini. In 1954 Huber was awarded the prestigious Compasso d’Oro and in 1958 he travels to the US as a speaker to the First International Seminar on Typography (New York Art Directors Club).
In 1965 the Nippon Design Committee organized an exhibition of Huber's work at Matsuya Design Gallery in Tokyo. This trip established close ties with Japan that culminated with his marriage to the artist and illustrator Aoi Kono. Kono was instrumental in the development of m.a.x.museo, a museum dedicated to his name and preserving his personal archive, that opened in Chiasso in 2005.
Aoi Huber Kono (Japan, b. 1936) was born in Tokyo as the Daughter of Takashi Kono, an important icon of Japanese graphic design. Aoi grew up in a creative environment that fostered her interest in graphics and art. After art high school, she graduated from Tokyo University of the Arts. In 1960 she attended Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm where she studied Western typography. In 1961 she moved to Milan where she met Max Huber, whom she married in 1962 and with whom she shared an intense creative life until his passing in 1992. In 1970 Aoi and Max relocated to Sagno in Canton Ticino, Switzerland.
Aoi Huber Kono’s work ranges from graphic design, illustration, painting, and design. She designed and created illustrations for Japanese and Italian magazines, children’s books, designs for textiles, scarves, toys and tapestries. With her projects she collaborated with Bruno Munari, Achille Castiglioni, and Mario Botta. In the 1970s, she learned the technique of engraving with Angelo Tenchio and screen printing with Paolo Minoli. In 1976 she held her first solo exhibition in Zurich. In 2005 she founded the Max Museum in Switzerland, which she then donated to the City of Chiasso in 2010. In 2021 the Mendrisio Art Museum presented a solo exhibition of her works. Aoi lives and works in Novazzano in Canton Ticino, Switzerland.
Takashi Kono (Japan, 1919 – 1999) was a leading force in Graphic Design in Japan for more than half a century, beginning in the 1930s. Best known by his posters for Shochiku Kinema, a major movie production company, Takashi Kono was a designer whose career almost entirely overlapped with the history of Japanese graphic design. Kono was a founding member of the Japan Advertising Artists Club (JAAC) formed in 1951, which aimed to give more creative freedom and expression in advertising through graphic arts. Kono used this freedom to express his distaste of American influence in Japan after World War 2. Furthermore, he believed American influence was corroding Japanese heritage which was an opinion he would present in work. He incorporated colours, styles, techniques and iconography from traditional Japanese art of the Edo period to portray contemporary subject.
“Shaken by the arrival of free and wild American creative power, at that time, in the world of graphic design what was imported was in fashion. For Takashi Kono, an Edo craftsman at heart, who wanted to re-create Japanese shapes and colors from chaotic commercial art, it was a natural creative posture to take. It is easy to understand how his natural sensibility made his resolution firm. He is unparalleled among graphic designers of his day. A clear "Japan original" can be found in the works created by Takashi Kono who had the essence of good Japanese tradition in his blood. As a graphic designer, I am proud to have been able to feel the same breezes as Takashi Kono and contemplate similar times.” — Shigeo Fukuda