Page 63 - Studio International - January 1967

Latin American art carious task to sketch in a few pages the develop- is still being expected of the maintenance of craft
ment through the ages of such an object as the book, traditions.
The Emergent Decade Text by Thomas M. Messer, in which so many cultural, technical, economic and Dr Ovink's article '150 Years of Book Typography in
172 pages, 200 black-and-white plates (14 in colour). social factors are combined into an almost inextric- the Netherlands' is a model of what such writing
Thames and Hudson £5 5s. able tangle.' The other serious criticism is that the should be, supported by excellent illustrations.
translation is abominable and unidiomatic-the whole The last two articles, 'Book Printing in Switzerland'
This book is the result of an exhibition arranged by text reads as if each contributor had written in his by Willy Rotzler and 'Book Typography in the United
Cornell University and the Solomon R. Guggenheim native language which had then been translated into States of America' by James M. Wells, cover extended
Museum in 1965. It consisted of eighty paintings by Dutch and from that language back into English. periods, the first from the beginning of the story in
South Americans and was shown at the Museo de Technical historians are notoriously lacking in style, 1470 and the second from 1704 roughly. It is curious
Bellas Artes and at the Ateneo de Caracas at but the way most of this text reads shows an appal ing how one forgets the surprising 'modernity' of Swiss
Caracas, Venezuela. lack of editorial care. typography until one remembers it as the home of
The book consists of a series of reports on the paint- Each country has suffered the same fate and funda- Dadaism. Once again in the U.S. article appears the
ings and painters of eight South American 'countries: mentally each contributor has the same tale to tell curious respect for the hand-press, which seems so
some groups and individuals were also photographed of the decline in standards of quality through the odd in such a technically advanced country: perhaps
by Cornell Capa and for these photographs he has rapid growth of mechanization. Some countries- they should take a note of Swiss achievements!
written a commentary. The result is an interesting but notably Belgium and Italy-have still not fully re- The book, and the American article, ends with a
on occasions infuriating account of contemporary covered from the bad standards of industrialization. statement whose untruth should be blazoned across
Latin American Art. For instance, the cover photo- Students of British book typography may take heart the art and technical schools of the world; 'At the
graph is of a painting by Movales from Nicaragua, from the effect the work of this country has had in moment, as printing faces a new threshold of techno-
but as Nicaragua is not one of the eight countries improving the standards abroad. Not only the famous logical change, with photo-composition and other
mentioned Movales is not heard of again. It probably effects started by William Morris and the private press new methods rapidly developing, the situation seems
represents fairly accurately the uneven achievement movement but much more recently in the care given much as it did a half-century ago, when mechanical
of South American painting, and the fact that people to mass book typography exemplified by Penguin. composition and high-speed presses were coming
such as Le Parc and Camargo are not included only Fernand Baudin writes on 'Books in Belgium'. His into their own. The printer must appraise the capaci-
underlines the value such an exhibition and such a article is something of a general essay on books ties of his new tools and grow accustomed to their
book must have for South Americans themselves in starting with the Contrefacon of 1814. This is per- use before he can extract from them either very
helping them to realize what is being done in neigh- haps what we chiefly remember about Belgium-the original or very good work.' Rubbish; men can pro-
bouring countries. The emphasis is on artists with an flood of cheap pirated reprints whose morality was duce good work any time they want to with the tools
international style and of these it is difficult to pick justified by the fact of breaking the Napoleonic to hand. The quality of the work depends entirely
out any individuals; one must accept the verdicts of censorship. The only typographer of any note to upon the quality of the man as a craftsman and only
the reporters who all seem to be very fair in their appear during the period is Henry van de Velde incidentally upon the tools he uses, however much
assessments. (1863-1957) who worked chiefly in Germany. Baudin these may shape the character of his work.
One is, however, delighted to find work by painters generally laments the present poor standards of his Timothy Wilkinson
such as Rainovelo de Oliviera being included; this home product.
shows a really personal development. The quality of France has two articles, the first 'The Typography of Art in Israel
the photographs and reproductions is excellent and the French Book 1800-1914' by Gerard Blanchard and
one is fascinated that the studios and houses could the second by Maximilien Vox titled 'The Half Cen- Art in Israel edited by Benjamin Tammuz and Max
be almost anywhere-there is nothing specifically tury 1914-1964' (note that it could not possibly be any Wykes-Joyce, 298 pages, 288 illustrations (63 pages in
A. P. Carter
South American about them. colour). W. H. Allen £5 5s.
other than French!). The first is a paragraphed essay
on the history of French book printing and excellent
as such. The second is inevitably largely personal This is an extremely disappointing book. Apart from
150 years of books memories of some controversiality and ends with the the reproductions, seventy in colour, it makes little
type classification for which Vox is famous. About this effort to inform the public or the serious student on
Book Typography 1815-1965 in Europe and The opinions are sharply divided and I belong to the anti the contemporary art scene in Israel. There is no
United States of America. Edited by Kenneth Day, school. It is interesting that Vox offers it asan example reference to a translator, so one must assume that
Ernest Benn Ltd, London, 5 guineas. of French logicality whereas it is precisely on the the writing, its style and content, is the responsibility
score of illogicality that I reject it. of the authors. Whilst the essays on Architecture
This book was originally published in 1965 to cele- 'The Art of the Book in Germany in the Nineteenth by Aviah Hashimonshoni and on Crafts and Design by
brate the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the and Twentieth Centuries' by Geog Kurt Schauer is John Cheney are relatively informative, those by
famous Dutch printing house of G. J. Thieme of exactly what it says it is: a carefully sub-divided his- Yona Fischer and Mira Friedman on Painting and
Nijmegen. Those printers are to be congratulated on tory of the art of the book. Each of the articles is Sculpture read more like public-relations hand-outs
the successful outcome of their desire to mark their supported by approximately twenty-four halftone than critical assessments. Mr Tammuz's introduction,
anniversary in a suitable way and we should be reproductions of examples and those to illustrate if you manage to get through the verbiage, makes no
grateful that they took the advice they sought from this article are perhaps the best. contribution whatsoever.
Stanley Morison and Jan Tschichold who helped to Miss Handover's 'British Book Typography' starts Mr Fischer, who works at the National Museum in
6 and develops into a hymn of
find the team of contributors. Now in its English with Bulmer in 1794 Jerusalem, and whom I know to be a perceptive
version, this will become an important source book praise for Stanley Morison and the 'Monotype' critic, is far too indulgent. He seems to have inter-
for students of printing, and for this reason, if for no machine. Otherwise it is largely a superficial history preted his job as having to refer to every veteran
other, we must consider what it has to offer with some of the mechanization of the period. Her champion- painter in the country and most of the younger ones
care. ship of the Monotype Corporation shows at once the too, without ever making a judgement or evaluation.
First it must be pointed out that the title is doubly disgrace and the glory of this organization: it is a Everyone emerges as important, if not a genius. There
false. The Europe of the title appears to consist only disgrace that there is no technical alternative avail- are far too many cliches or meaningless statements:
of Belgium, France, Germany, Britain, Italy, Holland, able to book printers for single type mechanical 'Two artists who chose drawing as their means of
and Switzerland: one would have thought both composition and a glory that so much superb typo- expression clearly demonstrate the conflict in Israeli
Austria and Czechoslovakia merited a mention. graphic material is available from this sole source. art in the period before the Second World War.' I can
Typography is now surely accepted as the appear- Italy suffered during the period in question more trace no other reference to this conflict, and no help-
ance of the arrangement of types and other printed than the other European countries in being unified ful analysis of its importance. An artist is described as
images rather than as the whole craft of printing? later. Franco Riva traces the story in 'Book Printing 'primarily a portrait painter in the style of Picasso'-
Yet it is in the latter sense that most of the contribu- in Italy from 1800 to the Present Day'. It is strange to whatever that means; and there are constant refer-
tors seem to have interpreted their briefs. To be sure find such praise for the hand-press, notably the ences like, 'In the work of Yosl Bergner the subject is
it is impossible to confine oneself to the pure history outstanding Officine Bodoni in a country always the centre around which a variety of styles and a
of typography. In fact Dr Ovink himself points out the thought of as in the lead with industrial design. number of artistic canons have revolved.' Both Mr
dangers of this in his opening sentence: 'It is a pre- Evidently typography is lagging behind and too much Fischer's and Miss Friedman's sections are like those