LADISLAV SUTNAR (1897-1976) SVAZ CESKOSLOVENSKEHO DILA V PRAZE / UDSTILLING. 1926. 49x36 inches. Sutnar. Condition B+: repaired tears and restoration in margins; horizontal fold. One of Sutnar's earliest posters, for an exhibition of Czechoslovak art (glass, arts and crafts, decorative art) in Copenhagen, it is graphically more in keeping with the general Art Deco ideology of the era then of the Functionalist typography and design which Sutnar would take to such great levels only a few years later. Sutnar began his career in 1923 as as a professor of design at at Prague's State School of Graphic Art, and from there branched out into numerous other design jobs and prestigious appointments, many of them overlapping one another. Amongst his most important positions was as the official designer of the Czechoslovak Government's exhibitions in foreign countries, and Art Director for the Druzstevni Prace [Cooperative Works] publishing house. Sutnar was responsible for, almost single-handedly, institutionalizing the Functionalist movement, moving its theoretical principles from the avant-garde to the practical mainstream. Sutnar did a lot of work in the field of corporate identity and is, perhaps, least remembered as the man who instituted the use of parentheses for American telephone area-codes--now considered a milestone in information graphics.
