Page 52 - Studio International - April 1973

(Below) Postage stamps. The two on the right are sketches only Photovision pins down the phenomena of life
(Bottom) Half-page NKF advertisement (proof) 1926. Coll. Haags Gemeentemuseum and nature as a whole or in detail.'8
During this period Dutch experiments in
typography and design became known beyond
the borders of the Netherlands. In December of
1927, Kurt Schwitters announced the foundation
of a group of 'Radical Designers' and invited
Piet Zwart to join Vordemberge-Gildewart,
Baumeister, Tschichold, Burchartz, and himself.
A strong letter from Helma Schwitters was
needed to persuade Zwart — always reluctant to
join groups — to become a member. Schwitters
started to organize exhibitions, and sent weekly
letters to the Ring neuer Werbegestalter, as the
group was now called, discussing the admission
of new members. Leistikow, Graff, Schuitema,
and Richter joined, van Doesburg declined.
Schwitters also had to beg constantly that new
work be sent in and the membership fees paid.
From 1928 to 1930 the Ring held at least fifteen
exhibitions, in Berlin, Hamburg, Dresden,
The photographs used in the NKF catalogue this state of affairs and, in his own work, tried to
had been made by a professional photographer show new approaches. Although most of his own Hanover, Basel, Rotterdam, Copenhagen and
whose preference for soft-focus images irritated contributions to modern Dutch photography other places. Although the Ring had been
Piet Zwart more and more. In 1928 he bought a date from after 1930 (he was already 45 by then), dissolved by May of 1931, the results of the
studio camera and some books, and, as with an earlier example indicates his aims : sharp, `new typography' had been shown widely.
typography, taught himself the trade. Within `objective' images, resulting from closeness of To see what else Piet Zwart produced between
a few years he had assembled bulky files from the lens to the object and big, fine-grained 1925 and 1930, we must go back to the office of
which he could draw all the material he needed negatives. Unusual angles and surprising H. P. Berlage, where he did his daily work.
for his 'photo-typography'. In the meantime, patterns were made possible by the flexibility Zwart admired the rationalism and purity of his
he had been secretary of the Dutch delegation of the modern camera. employer's architecture but also criticized the
to 'Fifo', the international photography His 'free' photography was made in addition lack of consistency in his later designs. Around
exhibition in Stuttgart in 1929, where, together to his regular applied work in photography. He 1920, Zwart had violently torn himself away
with the like-minded photographers Paul used them for exhibitions, but even more for from his own Dutch art nouveau education
Schuitema and Gerrit Kiljan, he showed his lectures, to illustrate the potentialities of the (1903-08) and the arts and crafts he had devoted
commercial work but was overwhelmed by the photographic image and to teach his pupils what himself to during World War I. This crisis had
superior quality of American, Russian, and he called 'photovision' : 'Photography is a new occurred after a harsh confrontation with the
German photography. The subtle technique of and characteristic medium of expression of our formal principles of De Stijl in 1919, when he
became friends with its members Huszar and
Edward Weston, the bold compositions of vision of the world. Photovision is the extension
Wils, and with the functional ideas of Frank
Rodchenko, made him realize that the Dutch — of natural vision. It offers new and different
Lloyd Wright, which had been introduced by
except in scientific photography — lagged far possibilities of expression. On the ground-glass
Berlage.
behind. In several articles he sharply criticized the visionary problem takes on form.
Around 1925 the Berlage office was engaged
on several big projects, and Berlage let his
assistant find his own solutions for practical and
formal problems. Piet Zwart, whose training as
an architect had been frustrated by the outbreak
of the war and financial disaster, could carry out
some of his own ideas, even when Berlage felt
he went a little too far. They concerned
experiments with new materials and their
technical application, the rationalization of
building techniques, and, on the formal level,
cool 'objective' design.
In 1925 Piet Zwart designed lamp-posts and
benches for the centre of The Hague and when
the First Church of Christ Scientist was built in
The Hague in 1926, Piet Zwart could say to
Berlage: 'Christian Science, that means
scientific christianity, so let's make a spiritual
factory of it Zwart was responsible for the
interior of the church, and designed specially
shaped glass bricks with which 'light walls'
could be built to replace the usual church
windows. Another example of his matter-of-fact
approach and his preference for industrial forms
was his use in this interior of a current model of
lamps (the Behrens design) intended for
178