Book review

KLAUSWEBER, Henry van de Velde, das buchkunstlerische Werk. Freiburg im Breisgau, Rombach Verlag, 1994, 23 cm, 496 pp., 311 illus., ISBN3793091007, DM 198.

By his own account, Dr Klaus Weber was encouraged in his research on Henry van de Velde and the arts of the book by an article this reviewer wrote on Van de Velde and typography (published in Qucerendo,I (1971) and 2 (1972)). Klaus Weber's doctoral thesis developed into a full discussion of Van de Velde's theories of ornament in modern art generally and ornament as applied to the book arts particularly. As a result, far more of his original typographic works have been systematically catalo- gued, described, commented upon, and reproduced, than in any previous and/or more comprehensive study of Van de Velde's work. The reason is that, in spite of his enormous output in nearly every art form except music, Van de Velde was perma- nently involved in book typography - not to mention commercial typography - for the better part of his long life. So much so that as late as 1926, i.e. at age 63, when he founded I'tcole Nationale Superieure d'Architecture & des Arts Decoratifs (ENSAAD) at La Cambre, Brussels, he took the same kind of personal interest in 1'Atelier du Livre as in the departments of architecture and interior design. In fact, under his supervision, 1'Atelier du Livre operated as a private press and published fifteen titles under three different imprints within ten years. As a matter of course, Klaus Weber read his predecessors on Art Nouveau. He consulted the available Van de Velde archives in Brussels and Hagen, as well as unpublished material such as Harry Graf Kessler's diaries in Marbach-am-Neckar. He was also given access to numerous pieces of correspondence inaccessible until recently. On top of this, he has photographed and reproduced all significant sketches, as well as the finished books, bindings, and ornaments that have some bearing on Van de Velde's monumental practical and theoretical efforts toward the definition of a formula for modern art. Formules d'une esthétique moderneis in point of fact the title he gave to an essay he published himself at the Cranach Presse (Weimar 1917); later published by L'Equerre, Societe cooperative d'edition et de propagande intellectuelle (Brussels 1923); and in La Cambre (Brussels 1932). This is emphatic evidence that he could never be content with Diblaiement d'art - his own 'aesthete' version of Du passé faisons table rase. Even then, in 1894, he was bent on hammering out, as he went, his own ornamental formula of the new synthesis of all the arts. Photographs, however useful, can never be altogether satisfactory where archi- tecture or sculpture are concerned: the third dimension is always missing. This is not so with book typography: the space of a two-page opening can be taken in at one photographic glance. Even a mere snapshot can therefore reflect the essence of book typography, namely: the placement of the type on the page. In the words of William Morris: 'any book in which the page is properly put on the paper is tolerable to look at howeverthe type may be.' (The ideal book, my italics. See also S. Morison's First principles.) The reproduction of two facing pages with their original margins uncropped is no 314 longer economically prohibitive where book typography is the subject. Especially when the photograph is not intended as a piece of art in its own right, two facing pages of text give a clear idea of the placement of the type and even some inkling of the architectural intentions of a given book. Even when the reproductions are so poor that they do not allow one to appreciate the typeface and the printing as such, it is enough to look at the spacing and to see whether it is even or not; close, open, or erratic; and in harmony with the leading, i.e. the spacing between the lines, or not. This is essential in any case, but particularly so in the case of Van de Velde as the self-styled exponent of the more exuberant Art Nouveau ornamentation who even- tually developed into a pioneer of the more puritanical expression of international modernity: the Bauhaus. What could only be suspected 23 years ago by this reviewer - and much more than that, needless to say - is now evident, fully documented, and displayed for every reader to see: Van de Velde's career as a typographer falls into three periods. Klaus Weber correctly describes them as the early, German, and later periods. He can do that because his table of contents is much more specific. For the sake of this review and in order to help the readers of Quvrendo, it is permissible to describe the early period as the one before Van de Velde met Harry Graf Kessler the middle period as the one where they joined efforts for ten consecutive years in order to prepare the monumental edition of Also sprach Zarathustra; and the later period as that in which he founded 1'Ecole Nationale Superieure d'Architecture & des Arts Decoratifs (ENSAAD)in Brussels, and organised two separate courses: l'atelier du livre, and le cours d'ornamentation du livre. The readers of this review, and hopefully the readers of Weber's book, should always bear in mind that however important book typography was to become for Van de Velde, he was primarily educated as an artist, and only later functioned as a self-taught and very successful architect, interior designer, and designer tout court. This was not the case with Kessler, a wealthy aristocrat and a patron of the arts. He eventually took a personal interest in the book arts and soon equipped a private press all his own: the Cranach Presse, 1913. The results of his literary, artistic, and typographic flair were acclaimed during his lifetime and consecrated by Renate Müller-Krumbach, with a contribution by John Dreyfus, in Harry Graf Kessler © die Cranach Presse in Weimar (Maximilian Gesellschaft i969). Now, to give some idea of how helpful Weber's photographs can be to the student of typography as distinct from the student of history, we must be content, here and now, with three comments, one per period, which any reader of Qu?zrendowill be able to check in Weber's book without further ado. The first period could suitably be described as the period of Diblazement d'art, since this is the very suggestive title of Van de Velde's first personal manifesto, in 1894. Only i5o numbered copies were printed, however, and it was preceded by Van nu straks [From now and later], 1893. The initiative came from Auguste Vermeylen, who practically dragged a reluctant Van de Velde into the roles of art director and typographic adviser. But Van nu © straks was a pioneer effort of the Flanders renaissance as a cultural identity on the international scene. Weber's mo photo- graphs are there for anyone to see that in this period the ornaments generally overshadow the typography such as it is, and that Van de Velde's instructions,