Someblog (or other)

Geneviève Claisse

2011-10-13T16:58:00.000+01:00

This is the work of Geneviève Claisse (born 1935). It's taken from a 1967 exhibition booklet.

Univeraux I (1967)

Cercles RNVB (1967)

Cercles VNV(1967)

Universaux VB (1968)

Geneviève Claisse

Ensemble muraux hall de la S.C.A.C., Putaux

Signes Noirs (1966)

Triangles Noir/Blanc (1964)

Text & scans © 2011 Gary Andrew Clarke
Art & Photos © Geneviève Claisse

String art

2011-10-13T11:46:00.000+01:00

String art (or pin and thread art), a kooky omnipresent 60s/70s decorative craft that lingered on the walls of my junior school, library, several friends houses, and the living room where I grew up.

The one on our wall was, unlike those below, merely 2D, strung by my mother, from a do-it-yourself set. An abstract design of silver string on black velvet cloth, that looked simultaneously like a boat, plane & bird, without actually looking exactly like either of those things. It was, quite possibly, my first experience of geometric abstract art.

I was fascinated to learn that this craft/art was in fact a Victorian invention, by the mathematician Mary Everest Boole (1832–1916), as a way of making mathematical ideas and geometry accessible to children. Why it became popular during the 60s/70s, I have no idea, although I imagine your mind could quite easily get lost in one, while under the influence.

These pictures below are all from 'Stringcraft in 3D' by Patricia & Brian Eales (1976). It's not so much the designs here that I find striking, but the lighting, and colours, that make them very otherworldly.

Text & scans © 2011 Gary Andrew Clarke
Photos © Patricia & Brian Eales

Stanley William Hayter

2011-10-12T18:56:00.001+01:00

These images are all from 'New Ways of Gravure' by Stanley William Hayter (1949. Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited).

Cinq Personnages by Stanley William Hayter (1946)

The Cage by F. Becker (1947)

The Big I by Alexander Calder (1944)

Amazon by Stanley William Hayter (1945)

Palimpset by Stanley William Hayter (1946)

The Rage of the Prophet by Ian Hugo (1945)

Nymphe Surprise by John Buckland Wright (1936)

Composition by John Ferren (1937)

Medusa by Andre Racz (1945)

Ophidia by Philip Kaplan (1946)

La Geometrie Organise le Chaos by Roger Vieillard (1939)

Further information

Atelier Contrepoint (Stanley's Experimental Etching Studio)
Stanley William Hayter (@ The Tate Collection)
Stanley William Hayter (@ National Gallery of Art)
Stanley William Hayter on Wikipedia
Books about Stanley W. Hayter (on Amazon)

Text & photos © 2011 Gary Andrew Clarke
Artwork © Relevant Artists

Josef Albers (Homage to the Square)

2011-10-12T14:18:00.004+01:00

Homage to the Square (30" x 30". 1957)

Despite owning several books about Josef Albers, I have no idea how many variations of 'Homage to the Squares' he painted / printed (wikipedia says 100s), but it's still exciting when I find ones that I haven't seen before. The first is from a Sotheby's 'Contemporary Art' sale catalogue from 1996. The estimated price was £35,000 - £45,000. The second is from an art book I found in the library.

Homage to the Square (30" x 30". 1964)

William Mitchell - Architectural Sculptor of the 60s & 70s

2011-05-23T19:05:00.002+01:00

This is a selection of work by William Mitchell. On his own website, he describes himself as 'Designer, Sculptor & Artist'. As you can see, though, much of this is all in context of within or without architecture.

The first few photos below, are all from his his contribution to the iconic hymn to modernism, the Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral (designed by Sir Frederick Gibberd (1908–84). The fantastical geometric relief above on the outside face, the main door, as well as several fibreglass reliefs on the inside walls are all his work. I suppose these are his most seen and most well known work, but this is a tip of a fascinating and prolific iceberg. It would appear that Mitchell was more or less was 'architectural sculpture' of the 50s, 60s & 70s.

I find his work an audacious and heady mix of folk shapes & textures and free-form geometry with a splash of a peculiar kind of retro-futurism. It reminds me of the production design in the original Planet of the Apes film. But it mostly reminds me of the public art that seemed to be ubiquitous in my 70s childhood. My school, village library, village hall, village church (all 60s buildings) all had friezes, wall art or sculptures that was part of this movement.

William Mitchell, explains on his site, that this experimental work was possible thanks to various Government tax incentives to encouraged building groups to establish Research and Development divisions in the 1950s and 60s.

"I was encouraged to produce all manner of strange things to show the potential of various materials - concrete, wood, plastics, bricks, glass, metal and so on. It was an exciting and wonderful time. I believed that the Festival of Britain of 1951 had never received the credit it was due. Today's meagre efforts pale before the outburst of artistic and creative ideas that were to be found at the Festival. I am sure that the Sixties were given a kick-start by the sheer exuberance of it all."

Sadly, I suspect that much of his work no longer exist. It's utopian / socialism / totalitarian vibe being quite post-modernly unfashionable. In exactly the same way that his work was a kick against the pre-war and then unfashionable Victoriana.

Not me though, I'd love a world in which his, and work like it, was everywhere.

All the photos below are based on those at William Mitchell's Website

Further information

William Mitchell's Website
Manchester Modernist Society

Text © 2011 Gary Andrew Clarke
Photographs © William Mitchell

Une Femme est une femme by Jean-Luc Godard (1961) Part 1

2011-05-21T23:16:00.002+01:00

12 x Photographs by Man Ray

2011-05-18T17:01:00.009+01:00

"There is no progress in art, any more than there is progress in making love. There are simply different ways of doing it." - Many Ray, 1948.

Man Ray. (1890 – 1976). Or maybe Emmanuel Radnitzky. 'Simply a brilliant modernist', says Wikipedia, and I say, yes, that little, is true.

I always think of him as a jack of all Dada/Surrealist trades, yet oddly a master of none. He was a hugely interesting photographer, painter, drawer, thinker, film maker, sculptor, experimenter, inventor...yet not consistently outstanding in any one of these areas.

But out from his Ray brain popped a considerable river of ideas, always interesting - even the many half baked ones - and he left us with a handful of which, all these years later, are still, like an equation, astonishingly elegant, minimal & modernist.

Man Ray too, had quite possibly the best pseudonym of any artist. A name that is a vivid work of art. Like all his best ideas, it's creatively astute, feeding the imagination with meaning & non-meaning. And again elegant, minimal & modernist. A simple 2 x 3 letters, with a vague symmetry.

Last summer, in Paris, in Montparnasse cemetery, I spent an hour in the hot sun, trying to find his grave - which I never did. I later found out it had been taken away to be cleaned. A Dadaist act from beyond the grave.

In Paris, I finally also had the chance to see many original prints at the Centre Pompidou, except they were sadly not originals, but modern prints. I like to imagine that it's perhaps because Mr Ray, so engrossed in making prints, never bothered to fix them properly against light.

The following photos, below, are all from Man Ray - The Photographic Image: edited by Janus (The English 1980 version of the Italian 'Man Ray: I'Immagine Fotografica - 1977').

This book is the book for Man Ray's 1976 Venice Biennale exhibition. All the reproductions were supervised by Man Ray, from negatives, books and photographs. They have raw imperfect grainy quality (maybe because of his involvement?) that make reproductions in newer books, seem slightly clinical and cold.

Andre Breton (1932)

Dora Maar (1936)

Faces (1932)

Photograph with Glass Balls (1929)

Lee Miller (1930)

Marcel Duchamp (1922)

Mathematical Object (1926)

Nude (1931)

Rayograph (1923)

Solarization (1931)

Tristan Tzara (1921)

The Net (1931)

Further information

Man Ray Trust
Man Ray on Wikipedia
Books about Man Ray (on Amazon)

Text © 2011 Gary Andrew Clarke
Photographs © Man Ray

The Penrose Annual 1956 (Part 3. American Graphic Design)

2011-05-18T14:35:00.010+01:00

This is part 2 of a series about The Penrose Annual 1956 (See Part 1 for further details about the book).

These graphics are from an article about American Graphic Design.

Magazine cover by W.H.Allner

Poster by Morton Goldsholl

Pamphlet by Will Burtin (front & back)

Advertisement by Lester Beall

Magazine advertisement by Ladislav Sutnar for Sweet's Catalog Service

Advertisement by Sol Mednick

Advertisement by Herbert Bayer

Carcard by Leo Lionni

Magazine cover by W.H.Allner

Text & photos © 2011 Gary Andrew Clarke
Graphics & Illustrations © The Relevant Designers

The Penrose Annual 1956 (Part 2. London School of Printing)

2011-05-18T12:50:00.006+01:00

This is part 2 of a series about The Penrose Annual 1956 (See Part 1 for further details about the book).

The graphics below are from an article about work by students at the London School of Printing & Graphic Arts.

Design for a Record Cover by N.G. Cayford (1955)

Magazine cover design by David Collins (1955)

Photogram by Althea McNish (1955)

Design for a Record Cover by S.A.Whittelsey (1955)

Text & photos © 2011 Gary Andrew Clarke
Graphics & Illustrations © The Relevant Designers

The Penrose Annual 1956 (Part 1. Post Office Printing)

2011-05-18T12:29:00.003+01:00

The Penrose Annual, ran from 1895 to 1982. It was a London based yearly review of the graphic arts.

While the Graphis Annual is more or less a book full of reproductions, This copy of Penrose from 1956 (it's 60th jubilee publication) is quite articles heavy; covering trends in graphic arts, articles about graphic/typographic history and various technical articles. The second half is exclusively content from advertisers - print, type & paper samples.

The graphics below are all from an article about the Post Office (GPO), or Royal Mail as it's known as today.

Poster by M.Reiss (1955)

Poster by P.H.Huveneers (1954)

Poser by Tom Eckersley

Van Strip by Barbosa

Small poster by James Fitton


Small poster by Kenneth Farnhill

Small poster by Leonard Beaumont

Small poster by F.H.K Henrion

Poster by Leonard Beaumont

Text & photos © 2011 Gary Andrew Clarke
Graphics & Illustrations © The Relevant Designers

Graphis Annual '66/67 Part 1

2011-05-16T16:16:00.014+01:00

I picked up a pile of well thumbed Graphis Annuals last week - 1954, 1959, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967 and 1977. I spent many an hour, many years ago, at Manchester's All Saints Library, photocopying and lusting after these. So it was a pleasant surprise to find a huge pile that could now sit next to my desk.

Predictably, there's a amazing wealth of graphic & illustration work inside, little of which has been reproduced elsewhere. This seems like a good excuse to lift the lid on the scanner and blast some light on the pages. So, if this kind of stuff floats your boat, you might want to follow this blog, or follow my Facebook group for updates over the coming days & weeks.

NB. This particular Graphis gives very little information about each work, or necessarily the year (in that, they may not all be from '66/67 despite being in the '66/67 annual) but the artist / art director are named.

by Eliezer Weishoff

The first scan, above, is by Eliezer Weishoff (1938-), a celebrated Israeli artist, who primarily is a sculptor, but has also produced paintings, posters, prints, stamps and coins. This work, is a tourist poster for the city of Jerusalem. The buildings as 'letters' say "A city that is all atmosphere." Grain Edit has a few more bits of his work.

by Martti A Mykkänen

Martti A Mykkänen (1926-2008) was a Finish / Swiss graphic designer who was particularly known for his book cover design, as well as posters. This is a tourist poster for the Finnish town of Turku.

Bruno Kym / Simone Hell-Bühler

Above, a Swiss poster advertising Stuyvesant, with the background text adding that they have "The Scent of the great wide world." Here is something else by Simone Hell-Bühler

by Gerhard Forster

An Italian poster by Gerhard Forster for Pirelli. I can imagine this looking pretty striking, big, on a billboard. But, never the less, it comes across as a strangely depressing sort of speed and safety, rather than one you want to buy.

by Fukuda Shigeo

A poster for Nippon Rayon's children's clothes by the Japanese sculptor, graphic artist and poster designer Shigeo Fukuda (1932-2009). Fukuda was inducted into the Art Directors Club Hall of Fame in 1987, he was the first Japanese designer to be so.

LIP by Jacques Auriac

I may well do an article in the future about Jacques Auriac (1922-2003). An Award winning French poster artist responsible for over 600 posters.

by Asher Kalderon

Poster for a building contractor by Israeli graphic designer and artist Asher Kalderon.

by Heinz Edelmann

Film poster by (Yellow Submarine Art Director) Heinz Edelmann (1934-2009) for René Clément's The Joy of Living aka 'Hold the Bomb a Minute, Darling.'

by Roman Cieślewicz

Poster for Swan Lake by the genius Polish graphic artist and photographer Roman Cieślewicz (1930-1996). More about him another time, certainly.

by Vaclav Rykr

Poster for a performance of Yugoslav songs and dances in Prague by Vaclav Rykr. Here is something else by Vaclav Rykr

László Moholy-Nagy

2011-05-16T09:34:00.000+01:00

Untitled photogram by László Moholy-Nagy (1940) gelatin silver print, 20 x 16 inches.

Posters by Milton Glaser (1966-1971)

2011-05-11T16:41:00.037+01:00

Milton Glaser (born 1929) is responsible for the I ♥ NY logo, of course. But enough about that.

Milton, along with Seymour Chwast, Reynold Ruffins & Edward Sorel founded the New Youk based Push Pin Studios in 1954. He later went on to form his his own Milton Glaser Inc in 1974.

This is my collection of posters by Milton produced between 1966 & 1970. Brilliant work that lives within it's own peculiar somewhere else world. One in which illustration and design and typography spilling into each others national borders, with a rigorous abandonment.

Film-Sense by Milton Glaser and Seymour Chwast (1971)

Mahalia Jackon by Milton Glaser (1967)

Bach by Milton Glaser (1971)

From Poppy With Love by Milton Glaser (1967)

Dylan by Milton Glaser (1966)

Zabriskie Point by Milton Glaser (1970)

Hugh Masekela by Milton Glaser (1966)

Further information

Milton Glaser (official site)
Milton Glaser Work (his online shop)
Milton Glaser on Wikipedia
Push Pin Inc (official site)
Books about Milton Glaser (on Amazon)

Text & photos © 2011 Gary Andrew Clarke
Graphics & Illustrations © 1967- 1971 Milton Glaser

Ralph Gibson's The Somnambulist (1970)

2011-05-10T00:57:00.018+01:00

Further information

www.ralphgibson.com
Ralph Gibson on Wikipedia
Ralph Gibson Boutique

Text © 2011 Gary Andrew Clarke

Underground magazine by Rod Clark (1987)

2011-05-09T18:40:00.015+01:00

Adolphe Mouron Cassandre - Bifur promotional brochure

2011-04-13T15:30:00.013+01:00

There are some things you expect to find at your local flea market. And some things you do not. This little beauty, belongs to the later category. This is a marketing brochure (circa 1930-40?) for Adolphe Mouron Cassandre's avant-garde typeface Bifur.

AM. Cassandre (1901 – 1968) was, and still is, a hugely influential poster artist. But he was also a graphic designer, type designer, painter, set-designer & teacher. He designed a handful of typefaces: Bifur (1929); Acier (1930); Acier Noir (1936); Peignot (1937); Touraine (with Charles Peignot, 1947); Cassandre (1968). Peignot is still widely available and in use today.

Bifur was commissioned by Charles Peignot, head of the French typefoundry, Deberny et Peignot. This brochure appears to be the UK release / promotion of the typeface by Soldans Ltd (44 Eagle St, London), a type foundry that no longer exists, and which I can find little about.

While Bifur is not the only pre-war experimental typeface of note (see Jan Tshichold, Herbert Bayer, Josef Albers etc), this is one that was actually made (un)commercially available for designers to use.

"There were no new or innovative typefaces which existed at the time. The Bifur created a real scandal...at least in the small world of publishing and printing. Engraving this design was a remarkable tour de force. Needless to say, Bifur was not a financial success, but in those happy days one could afford to take a few risks." - Charles Peignot.

Indeed, I'm not sure that I've ever seen an example of graphic design that uses it, even by Cassandre himself.

The brochure is a 17 x 26cm stapled booklet with 16 pages printed in three colours throughout. Some of pages are separated with either a thin yellow or a blue coloured acetate sheet. Only a small amount of the blue one still exists in my copy.

The pages, elegantly introduce, with a slow pace, and explain how Bifur could, should & should not be used (note the stunning page repeating 'This is not the way to use Bifur' ad infinitum!). I would guess that it was designed, or closely art directed by Cassandre himself.

Anyway, it's an amazing snapshot of graphic / typographic history.

Below, is the introduction, or rather intellectual argument, for such a beautifully folly. I've chosen not to clean up the photos, I think it's important to remember just how old this.

Here are all 16 pages in order...

Further information

For larger versions of these images click here.

Official website for the Estate of AM. Cassandre
AM. Cassandre on Wikipedia
Books about AM. Cassandre (on Amazon)
Bifur font - for your computer (free & paid for versions)

Text & photos © 2011 Gary Andrew Clarke
Bifur © Adolphe Mouron Cassandre

Elizabeth Mrazik-Cleaver - The Wind Has Wings

2011-04-11T12:08:00.009+01:00

These illustrations are all by Elizabeth Mrazik-Cleaver (1939–1985). They are taken from The Wind Has Wings - Poems from Canada (1969, Oxford University Press, Canadian Branch). The book is a compilation of various poems for children by some fifty Canadian poets. The book won the 1971 Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Illustrator's Award.

There's not great deal of information about Elizabeth on the internet. She produced illustrations for 13 children's books, and won six various Illustration related awards for her work, and sadly, died relatively young, aged just 45.

Many of the pages feature black/white woodcuts images, interspersed with full colour collage / cut paper images such as below. What makes them interesting, for me, is the extensive use of decalcomania, one of the techniques that surrealist artists Oscar Domínguez and Max Ernst were fond of using.

Further Information

Elizabeth Mrazik-Cleaver on Wikipedia
The Wind Has Wings on Amazon

Text © 2011 Gary Andrew Clarke
Illustrations © 1969 Oxford University Press / Elizabeth Mrazik-Cleaver

Piet Zwart

2011-04-09T10:16:00.008+01:00

I cut these out from a magazine many years ago, and so the information is a little sparse for them. But, they are reproductions of pages from a 1930 type specimens by the printers N.V Drukkerij, which was based in The Hague, Netherlands. The first is by Piet Zwart (1885 – 1977).

Rumble Fish - Francis Ford Coppola (1983)

2011-04-08T14:11:00.002+01:00

Twisted Nerve (1968) - Campaign book & film poster

2011-04-08T10:52:00.113+01:00

Below is the cover of the campaign book for the 1968 British 'Horror' film Twisted Nerve. It's not a wholly interesting film, per say, quite dated and occasionally politically incorrect. It's not particularly scary either, but it does star Hayley Mills (1946-), and has a remarkable soundtrack by the legendary Bernard Herrmann (1911 – 1975) - the whistling tune used also in Tarrantino's Kill Bill (2003-4).

I do like the artwork, though, the stuff of nightmares, quite sinister and genuinely disturbing. Especially the lime green, dark purples & cyan blues of the film poster.

Of note, film was co-written by Leo Marks (1920 – 2001), the writer of Pepping Tom (1960), and the voice of the devil in The Last Temptation of Christ (1988). He was also, bizarrely, a leading code breaker during the second world war.

As well as profiles, the booklet also adds that an insurance policy for the sum of £25,000 has been arranged for 'any person who dies of shock as a direct result of seeing the film'. I wonder if anyone took them up on that offer?

Twisted Nerve, is/was also the name of a Manchester independent record label. And a place that I worked from 1999-2005. The film poster (below), very large, loomed over us from the office wall.

The campaign book was a gift from Andy Votel, who ran the label, and named it after the film's soundtrack (prior to actually seeing the film). More about Twisted Nerve & Andy Votel another time.

Peter Max - the godfather of cosmic art

2011-04-07T18:24:00.014+01:00

Peter Max (1937-) was one of the first 'poster artists' whose work I became aware of. This is in thanks to him being one of the few artists to have a full colour plate within John Barnicoat's Posters (A Concise History) - Thames and Hudson (1988), and that being the first design book I owned.

Max was born in Nazi Germany, from which his Jewish parents fled with him to Shanghai, then to Israel, then to Paris, before finally settling in New York in the early 1950s. He completed formal art studies at the Art Students League of New York, after which he set up an art studio in Manhattan with friends, working on books and advertising.

A record sleeve design for jazz pianist Meade Lux Lewis led to gold medal from the Society of Illustrators in 1962, from which exhibitions and further work then flowed. His eventual fame was such that he appeared on the Tonight Show (1968) and was on a cover of LIFE magazine (1969). His 'Love' poster (see below) is probably the most recognisable & copied & quoted of his work. It is, never-the-less, a stunning and instantly memorable piece of graphic art. But is it actually advertising anything? Who cares...

Max continue to works, apparently he's the official artist for such major US events as Grammy Awards, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame & The Super Bowl. He also runs an annual colouring competition.

Along with Milton Glaser, Peter Max is one of my favourite American graphic artists of the late 60s & early 70s. More about Milton another time. Here, I'm going to focus on Max's work produced between 1967-1974, because it's the work reproduced during then, and that I've reproduced above (and below), that grabbed my imagination in the late 80s.

While Wes Wilson and Victor Moscoso's psychedelic poster art are perhaps a more systematic indictment of the copious amounts of LSD some artists were taking, their work is more of a texture, and as wonderful as it is, it is still borderline confusion.

On the other hand, I like Max's slightly tamed, more concise take on the cunter-culture, it's almost modernist in it's simplicity, sparseness and drama (despite being not at the same time). And like much of the pop-culture of the time, it makes interesting nods to Victoriana art, fashion & design. Peter Max, was perhaps the cosmic son of the Beggarstaff Brothers.

Various pieces of Max's work bare a resemblance to Heinz Edelmann art direction of The Beatles' Yellow Submarine film (1968), and I used to think that the cover of Love's Forever Changes was his work too (it's Bob Pepper). I have no idea who was borrowing who's style in this regard, but neither do I care. I'm just glad quirky graphics like this exists at all.

I guess on some levels, signatures of Max's work and style have become the currency for the lazy designers (and advertisers) to steal, a lifestyle shorthand for capturing the late hippy 60s counter-culture, without any interest or care for the politics. His 'LOVE' poster is as culturally abused as the 'KEEP CALM & CARRY ON' poster. A wall print, for people who don't do drugs.

And perhaps Max can be held indirectly responsible for many 70s 'cosmic' prog record covers too, and ultimately, further down the line, for Roger Dean. But I don't think you should let these thoughts devalue his poster work, it has an energy, simplicity and excitement that is pretty rare and unique.

The reproductions below are from my copy of Images of an Era: the American Poster 1945-75 by the National Collection of Fine Arts, Smithsonian Institute. This is a book that is sadly out of print, but it remains an exceptional education in American 1945-1975 graphic posters. It's big. It's all in colour. And it's very thick. Thoroughly recommended.

Further Information

For larger versions of these images click here.

Offical Peter Max website
Peter Max on Wikipedia
The Art of Peter Max by Charles A. Riley (on Amazon)

Text © 2011 Gary Andrew Clarke
Illustrations © Peter Max

Jiří Trnka's illustrations for Peter And The Wolf (1964)

2011-04-07T13:40:00.010+01:00

I'm in Czechoslovakia again with this entry, and with another children's book. This one is a graphic novel, so to speak, of Sergei Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf. And like Kubasta's The Brave Tin Soldier, it was originally produced by the Czech communist government run book company ARTIA. This is a 1965 Hamlyn English version. It was awarded a bronze medal in recognition of it's design.

The illustrations are by Czech Jiří Trnka (1912 - 1969). Trnka was a puppet maker and illustrator, and internationally recognised master of stop motion puppet animations. He directed eighteen films, the first of which won an award at Cannes in 1948. Just prior to to his death, in 1968, he won the Hans Christian Andersen Award for illustration - the so called "Nobel Prize for children's literature."

The book is designed to be read while listening to the music, with instrument icons on each page alongside the text, as they appear in the Prokofiev piece. A film tie-in, Eastern European style!

The illustrations, or to be more precise paper collages with pencil textures & textured rubbing's, bound around the page with suggestions of movement and depth. The colours are exquisitely vivid, especially Peter's bright red hat. In all, a static animated flat puppet show, if you see what I mean.

Further information

Jiří Trnka on Wikipedia
Jiří Trnka on IMDB
Jiří Trnka on Amazon

Text & Photos © 2011 Gary Andrew Clarke
Illustrations © 1964 Jiří Trnka / ARTIA

9 Colour 9 Spot Dominoes

2011-04-05T20:19:00.019+01:00

Those of you familiar with my pictures, will know that I'm quite preoccupied with coloured spots in geometric arrangements. So when I saw this old set of dominoes for sale, I was, as you can probably imagine, very taken.

The box they came in is plain, and deep red, with no design, nor text. This makes it quite impossible to date by anything but a vague decade, but judging by specific shades of colours, an educated guess would be from the 1950s.

Vojtech Kubasta - Czech pop-up

2011-04-04T11:26:00.038+01:00

This is one of four late 60s / early 70s Eastern European children's pop-up books that I found for 10p each at my local charity shop a few years ago. This gives the impression that my local charity shops excel in literary treasures, but no, this was a blip in quality and most are full of unread copies of dirge like Bridget Jones & Tony Parsons.

There's probably a very interesting story as to why these ended up in a village as insignificant as where I live, but it's not a story that I'm privilege to. The books are all in near perfect condition, which given the culture clash of delicate pop-up books and small children's desire to wear them out, seems quite odd.

This one is a five page pop-up English print (Murrays 1977) version of ARTIA's Czech 1972 version of Hans Christian Andersen's The Steadfast Tin Soldier. The pop-up design & drawings are by popular Czech artist Vojtěch Kubašta (1914 - 1992).

Despite being a rather sad & bitter-sweet story of a tin soldier's unrequited love and ultimate demise, the whole book is quite upbeat and told in vivid colours. Every page opens to give way to a complex set piece of scenes with characters that come to life with tabs. I was not surprised to learn that Vojtěch's work is popular and collectable.

I'm particularly taken by the ballerina (with her 'real paper doily' dress) and the devilish jack-in-the-box that gives me the fear. The rat ranks pretty high on the sinister scale too.

Kubašta studied at the Polytech University in Prague & graduated with a degree in architect in 1938. This career path only lasted two years, and by 1940s he was working as a commercial artist / book designer.

Following the switch to Communism, and the nationalisation of the entire Czech publishing industry, Kubašta became involved in advertising a wide range of Czechoslovak products for the western market, it was here that he found an interest and love of creating three-dimensional pop-up work.

By 1965 he had designed his first pop-up book, based on the folk tale Little Red Riding Hood. This was published by Czech government owned Prague based publishing house ARTIA. The success of the book led to him being responsible for many of ARTIA's pop-up children's books (mostly based on folk tales). He was one of their leading illustrators and book designers, selling 35 million copies with translations in 24 different languages.

His talent and skill were widely acknowledged at the time, including by Walt Disney, for whom he designed many pop-up movie tie-ins during the 60s & 70s, although he's not directly credited on these for the work.

One of the other four books I found with this, is also by Kubašta, a version of Puss In Boots, which I might take photos of and add here at some point in the future.

Further information

For larger versions of these images click here.

The first of the links below, a catalogue from an exhibition in Florida, has a wealth of information and many images of his other work, if you would like to see more.

The Work of Vojtech Kubašta
Voitech Kubasta: Pop-Up Innovator
Hans Christian Andersen's The Tin Soldier
Vojtech Kubasta on Amazon

Jan Pienkowski's The Kingdom Under The Sea

2011-04-01T19:04:00.042+01:00

This is something I found in Stockport's fantastic monthly Vintage Village fair. It was from Agnes Darling's stall, and she deserves a mention, as I seem to find something great there every month.

The Kingdom Under The Sea is a 100 page children's book first published by Jonathan Cape in 1971. It is Joan Aiken's retelling of 11 traditional Eastern European folk tales (some of which are based on Ivana Berlic-Mazuranic's 'Croatian Tales of Long Ago', a book I know nothing about, but I imagine should be worth tracking down too).

The tales themselves are, as you'd expect - fanciful, dark, mysterious and slightly sinister - but it's Jan Pienkowski's superb illustrations that make this a treasure. I was actually rather surprised at the lack of reproductions elsewhere on the internet, so I've reproduced seven of them below. The book won a Library Association Kate Greenaway Medal in 1972. And too right.

The stories feature such characters as the Dawn Maiden, Daybog the sun-god and, my favourite, the child eating witch Baba Yaga (who lives in a house on a hill that stands on a huge chicken leg, surrounded by a fence & gate made of bones). I suspect that readers younger than 5 might actually be disturbed and refuse to sleep with the light off after being read some of these.

The Polish born British Illustrator, Jan Pienkowski, is probably known best for his Meg & Mog children's books, books that any child of the 70s or 80s will be aware of all too well, with their bold lines, chunky shapes & primary colours. So I was quite surprised to see that these pictures were also his work, as they are far from the style that I knew him for.

Nearly every page of every story features incredibly detailed black & white silhouette style illustrations by Pienkowski - there must be at least 80 - spiky follage, delicate hands, flowing clothes & hair are repeating themes again and again.

Interspersed throughout are also several full colour pages in the same style but with the added bonus of being superimposed on various colour marbling backgrounds. The addition of these colourful slightly psychedelic marbling effects, add a superb otherworldly dreamlike quality to the narrative, making them swim and swirl with imagination.

For reasons known only to fashion, it's quite rare to see anyone using marbling these days, as part of an illustration, say, although it's quite common in the world of crafty hand made / bound books. And I think I'm right in saying that there did appear to be a slight trend for it in the 70s, there's a couple of other things I have from that decade that feature it. It's not a critism though, I like the slightly Hippy / Prog / Lentil Soup vibe about it.

Sadly, in the age of Photoshop, and stock textures, the idea of boiling a huge vat of seaweed, in order to make the liquid that will enable inks to float so you can get a unique pattern, is not something most of us, though, have the time to do. Pity.

Further information

For larger versions of these images click here.

Jan Pienkowski's website
Joan Aiken's website
The Kingdom Under The Sea (on Amazon)

Text © 2011 Gary Andrew Clarke
Illustrations © 1971 Jan Pienkowski / Jonathan Cape