Walter Dexel. Fotografie der Gegenwart (Contemporary Photography) (Poster for exhibition in Magdeburg). 1929

Walter Dexel Fotografie der Gegenwart (Contemporary Photography) (Poster for exhibition in Magdeburg) 1929

  • Not on view

"The New Typography emphasizes contrasts and uses them to create a new unity," Tschichold wrote. "The real meaning of form is made clearer by its opposite." The visual impact of Dexel's poster for a photography exhibition relies on this principle of contrast. Rather than referring to the pictorial content of the exhibition, the strips of reversed lettering emphasize the technical process of printing photographs from a negative. Ironically, the machinelike precision of the lettering was achieved by laborious and highly skilled handwork—the text was engraved letter by letter into linoleum, a material notoriously difficult to incise with such accuracy.

Gallery label from The New Typography, December 23, 2009–July 26, 2010.
Medium
Linocut
Dimensions
33 1/4 x 23 1/4" (84.5 x 59.0 cm)
Printer
W. Pfannkuch & Co., Magdeburg
Credit
Gift of the designer
Object number
126.1968
Department
Architecture and Design

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