?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 700 - $ 1,000
LADISLAV SUTNAR (1897 - 1976) CZECHOSLOVAK STATE RAILWAY / KUTNA HORA. Circa 1930. 37x25 inches. V. Neubert, Prague. Condition B+: creases, minor tears and abrasions in margins; discolored. Printed on thick paper. Ladislav Sutnar was both a professor and practitioner of design. He was a pioneer in the fields of informational graphics and corporate identity. He taught at Prague's State School of Graphic Art and was the official designer of the Czechoslovak Government's exhibitions in foreign countries (winning several awards for his work in this field). In 1929, he was hired as the Art Director for the Druzstevni Prace [Cooperative Works] publishing house, for whom he created a unified, unique and original graphic identity. This "unity" he created for Druzstevni Prace was the first appearance of a concept that Sutnar would later develop into creating corporate identity through visual recognition. In 1939, Sutnar came to New York to help set up the Czech Pavilion at the New York World's Fair. With the outbreak of war in Europe, Sutnar chose to stay in The United States. From 1941-1960 he worked with Sweet's Catalog Service, a company that produced complex technical catalogues for architects, engineers and builders. This two decade-long association resulted in the pioneering redesign of the company's catalogues. Sutnar's uncluttered and organized vision and his Functionalist background brought order, clarity and ease of comprehension to a field muddy with technical information. Perhaps his best known, but least acknowledged, contribution is the use of parentheses for telephone area codes, now considered a milestone in information graphics. His posters were largely a fusion of Bauhaus ideas, typography, Constructivism and his own work with photomontage and design.
