Ladislav Sutnar – Výtvarné snahy XI/1

Ladislav Sutnar – Výtvarné snahy XI/1. Original Sutnar Cover. Prague, 1929

Výtvarné snahy. Ročník XI, číslo 1 [Artistic Endeavours. Year XI, No. 1]. Prague: Prometheus, 1929. 4to. 20 pp. + three supplements: Jak bydlet? [How to Live?], 4 pp.; Zprávy Svazu československého díla [Reports of the Czechoslovak Werkbund], 4 pp.; and Výtvarná výchova [Art Education], 8 pp. Profusely illustrated in black and white. Original red-and-black typographic wrappers designed by Ladislav Sutnar, with professional restoration to the wrappers. Very good condition. First issue of the eleventh year of this important Czech interwar journal devoted to modern architecture, housing, industrial design and the applied arts. The editorial board included Karel Herain, Ladislav Sutnar, Josef Vydra and Jaroslav Jindra. A particularly important Sutnar issue, retaining his striking modernist cover and containing substantial documentation of his developing theories of visual communication. Of special significance is a full-page diagram in which Sutnar systematically sets out principles for effective advertising: understanding the product and its audience, selecting the appropriate advertising medium, and above all achieving immediate visual impact through color, light, movement, illustration and clear graphic organization. The page provides an unusually early and succinct statement of ideas that would become fundamental to Sutnar's later work in advertising, exhibition design and information design. The issue also reproduces photographs of his advertising section for the Svaz československého díla at the 1929 Exhibition of Modern Commerce in Brno, demonstrating these principles in practice. Further contents include Karel Herain on modern housing; contemporary German porcelain and industrial design; Walter Gropius on new Bauhaus products, with furniture by Josef Albers and Hannes Meyer; modern furniture and interiors; and a model by František Kerhart for the chemical-technology building in Příbram. Complete with all three separately paginated supplements, including Jak bydlet?, with Václav Lacina's text on contemporary housing; Zprávy Svazu československého díla; and Výtvarná výchova.