?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 8,000 - $ 12,000
JAN TSCHICHOLD (1902-1974) DER BERUFSPHOTOGRAPH. 1938. 25x35 7/8 inches, 63 1/2x91 1/2 cm. Benno Schwabe & Co., Basel. Condition B+: repaired tears and creases in margins and image. Japan. A prolific practitioner, teacher and writer, Tschichold was one of the fathers of "New Typography," the title of his highly influential 1928 book. Son of a caligrapher, and a student at the Academy for Graphic Arts in Leipzig, Tschichold was influenced by both the Bauhaus and Russian constructivists like El Lissitsky. He moved to Munich in 1926 and continued teaching and designing. Intense pressure from the Nazi party forced him to flee Germany, and he settled in Switzerland. He eventually moved to England where he was responsible for a complete redesign of Penguin Books. This poster for 'The Professional Photographer' exhibition in Basel, designed when he was living there, uses an underlying geometric structure based on a neat grid of vertical and horizontal lines, to convey information in a clean and organized manner. The use of a photographic negative both arouses curiosity and creates and eye-catching image, while also alluding to the technical aspects of photography. 'Many graphic designers mastered the camera alongside the tools of illustration, layout and lettering…Tschihold's letterpress poster features precisely articulated elements that punctuate the page: the mechanical bite of the press is felt in the design. Tiny letters pierce the surface like tight black stitches while the larger headline contains a rainbow of colors printed with a single pass of the press' (Graphic Design in the Mechanical Age p. 76). Modern Poster p. 131, Mechanical Age p. 74., Word & Image p. 76.
