Alpha-blox, a font by American Type Founders, 1944. via
Tag Archives: 1940s
Poésie de mots inconnus is a book from 1949 made by Ilia Zdanevich (aka ILIAZD) after he moved to France from Georgia. It features Russian and Italian futurists, German dadaists, surrealists, and people from other avant-garde movements (Picasso, Braque, Matisse, Miró, Magnelli, etc). It was a reaction against lettrism, which ILIAZD saw as mediocre mimicry.
Poems by Akinsemoyin, Albert-Birot, Arp, Artaud, Audiberti, Ball, Beauduin, Bryen, Dermée, Hausmann, Huidobro, Iliazd, Jolas, Khlébnikov, Krutchonykh, Picasso, Poplavsky, Schwitters, Seuphor, Téréntiev, Tzara.
Decorated by Arp, Braque, Bryen, Chagall, Dominguez, Férat, Giacometti, Gleizes, Hausmann, Laurens, Léger, Magnelli, Masson, Matisse, Metzinger, Miró, Picasso, Survage, Taeuber-Arp, Tytgat, Villon, Wols, Ribemont- Dessaignes.
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Photos from MOMA and Christies (who sold the book for 60,000 euros in 2020). Previously covered here.
Valto Malmiola’s portrait of Sibelius, 1937. It was made with 30,000 so-called rules – strips of metal, often brass or type-cast metal, used for printing lines since the 1500’s.
More works by Valto Malmiola, made with the same technique, 1938-1943.
Images and info from Typographic Art of Valto Malmiola by Heikki Lotvonen, 2023. He mentions that for example Carl Fasol used this technique before Malmiola.
Weaving Technique: K (Six Weaving Designs). Drawings by Lena Meyer-Bergner, 1943.
Coloredo by Quercetti (1946), a pegboard with its famous multicoloured mushroom-shaped pegs.
The game was inspired by an old French compositional game made of a perforated carton board and a bunch of wooden sticks with colourful wax tops.