ABSTRACT Title of Document: FIGURATIVE CONSTRUCTIVISM, PICTORIAL STATISTICS, AND THE GROUP OF PROGRESSIVE ARTISTS, C. 1920-1939 Benjamin Benus, Doctor of Philosophy, 2010 Directed By: Professor Steven A. Mansbach Department of Art History and Archaeology This dissertation examines an episode of interdisciplinary collaboration in Vienna during the late 1920s and early 1930s, led by the Austrian social scientist Otto Neurath (1882-1945) and the German printmaker Gerd Arntz (1900-1988). This collaboration, which took place at Vienna’s Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum [Social and Economic Museum] ultimately created an international graphic sign language that would have wide-ranging applications across a variety of media and disciplines. Known as the Vienna Method of Pictorial Statistics, this graphic language was intended to communicate social and economic facts to a general audience. In making such information broadly accessible, the Vienna Method’s designers hoped to empower the public at large to take informed positions on a variety of social and political issues. Prior to and during the period of this collaboration, Arntz was a member of the Rhineland-based Gruppe progressiver Künstler [Group of Progressive Artists]. In 1929 two additional members of this group—the Dutch artist Peter Alma (1886-1969) and the Czech artist Augustin Tschinkel (1905-1983)—joined Arntz at the museum. All three artists produced prints, drawings, and paintings in an expressive mode, later classified under the rubric “figurative constructivism.” While these “free” works (as they often described them) were produced independent of the applied work at the museum, the two types of production share several key stylistic and iconographic features. Yet, the relationship between figurative constructivist artworks and pictorial statistic graphics has until now remained obscure. This dissertation analyzes the nature of this creative relationship by describing the different circumstances out of which the two projects originated, and by examining the manner in which certain figurative constructivist features were adapted in the design of pictorial statistics. In considering the ways in which these two types of work were presented and discussed together in a variety of contemporaneous avant-garde publications, the present investigation will provide new insights concerning the interwar connections between the artistic avant-garde and visual communication in the sciences. FIGURATIVE CONSTRUCTIVISM, PICTORIAL STATISTICS, AND THE GROUP OF PROGRESSIVE ARTISTS, C. 1920-1939 By Benjamin Benus Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2010 Advisory Committee: Professor Steven A. Mansbach, Chair Professor Dorothea Dietrich Professor Joshua A. Shannon Professor Marjorie S. Venit Professor Jeffrey Herf © Copyright by Benjamin Benus 2010 The dissertation document that follows has had referenced material removed in respect for the owner’s copyright. A complete version of this document, which includes said referenced material, resides in the University of Maryland, College Park’s library collection. ii Acknowledgements This dissertation would not have been possible without the generous and enthusiastic support of a number of institutions and individuals. Crucial to the completion of this work was the ACLS Mellon Dissertation Completion Fellowship, which afforded me the opportunity to devote my energies exclusively to this project at a critical stage in the process. A Summer Research Fellowship from the University of Maryland and an earlier grant from the Cosmos Club Foundation were both of enormous help in allowing me to travel and conduct archival research in a wide variety of locations throughout Europe and the United States. I am especially indebted to my advisor, Steven Mansbach, who has been my tireless and dedicated supporter for nearly a decade now—first advising my master’s thesis at the Pratt Institute in 2001, and now chair of my dissertation committee at the University of Maryland. I have repeatedly benefited from his guidance, direction, and generosity. I would also like to thank the Department of Art History and Archaeology at the University of Maryland for their unwavering support—especially Marjorie Venit and Joshua Shannon, who have both offered help and encouragement at crucial moments in my academic career. Additionally, I would like to thank Dorothea Dietrich, whose feedback and enthusiasm early on in the writing-process helped to determine the shape of this project. Thanks are due to the staff, librarians, archivists, and scholars at the following institutions: the Getty Research Center in Los Angeles; the Historisches Archiv in Cologne; the International Institute for Social History in Amsterdam; the Stadsarchief in Amsterdam; the Museum of Czech Literature (PNP) in Prague; and the National iii Library of the Czech Republic in Prague. Individuals at the following institutions deserve special mention for their generous assistance and hospitality: Timothy Benson and Erika Esau at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s Rifkind Center for German Expressionist Studies; Eric Kindel at the Otto and Marie Neurath Isotype Collection at the University of Reading; Vivien Entius at the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague; Arno van Roosmalen at Stroom Den Haag; Michiel Nijhoff and Carolien Glazenburg at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam; Charles van den Heuvel at the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) in Amsterdam; Ursula Frohne at the Universität zu Köln; Claudia Gloeckner at Galerie Gloeckner in Cologne; Lucie Siklova and Eva Bendova at the National Gallery in Prague; and Iva Knobloch at the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague. Additionally, I have benefited immeasurably from conversations and exchanges with a number of scholars, whose earlier work on pictorial statistics and the Group of Progressive Artists has provided the foundations for this dissertation. Robin Kinross patiently answered questions and shared notes with me from his own earlier research on Isotype. Flip Bool was especially kind in allowing me access to his extensive personal library. Nader Voussoughian generously devoted time to read sections of my dissertation, and provided critical feedback. I am especially grateful to Christopher Burke, who not only read and commented on sections of my dissertation, but patiently responded to all of my typography-related inquiries, and repeatedly brought new and relevant material to my attention. Special thanks are due to those descendents and friends of artists, who invited me into their homes and provided me access to their collections. I am grateful to Dr. iv Jobst Jürgen Knief and Dr. Marlies Knief in Cologne, who shared with me their correspondence and documentation related to Augustin Tschinkel, as well as personal recollections of their friend. Peter Modley in Bethesda was especially kind in allowing me to make use of his father’s papers and rare publications. Peter and Marian Arntz in Rijswijk were wonderfully hospitable, and Peter was of immeasurable assistance—both in providing me access to his personal collection of his father’s pictorial statistic work, and in sharing with me memories of his father. Though I spent only one day with him in the winter of 2009, Peter’s kindness, enthusiasm, and generosity made a lasting impression. It was with great sadness that I learned of his passing last summer. There are additionally a number of friends, colleagues, and mentors, who have supported me in innumerable ways. I would like to thank Jana Mikulcová for her hospitality in Prague and her help in navigating some of the city’s more labyrinthine archival institutions. Alena Kottová and Maia Henley also provided assistance with Czech translations. I am indebted to Tjitske Risselada for help with Dutch translations and assistance with archival research in Amsterdam. Elke Wojan has tirelessly and enthusiastically provided encouragement over the past few years (along with assistance in matters of German language and grammar). Bob Richardson has, once again, selflessly served as a reader for sections of this draft, offering invaluable insights and criticism. Of my friends and colleagues as Maryland, I am especially grateful to Angela George, whose friendship and support have helped me to reach this goal. Finally, I would like to thank my family, especially my parents, for all of the ways in which they have provided support and assistance over the years. v Table of Contents Acknowledgements ................................................................................................. iii Table of Contents .....................................................................................................vi List of Figures .........................................................................................................vii Introduction...............................................................................................................1 Chapter 1: The Origins and Development of Figurative Constructivism...................26 Chapter 2: Figurative Constructivism and the International Avant-garde..................66 Chapter 3: The Vienna Method of Pictorial Statistics...............................................92 Chapter 4: Sociological Graphics and Pictorial Statistics .......................................149 Conclusion ............................................................................................................180