wiedler.ch

book (design) story #360

cornelis baard:
monumentale kunst / 40 jaar stedelijk museum amsterdam

stedelijk museum, amsterdam, 1935
size: 21 x 15 cm
designer: willem sandberg

although this is not a german-language book i include it as an early modernist design by dutch museum man and graphic designer willem sandberg (1897-1984). sandberg designed this catalogue for an exhibition of contemporary monumental (mostly dutch) art three years before he became a curator at the stedelijk museum in amsterdam in 1938. after ww2 he was appointed director.

the cover shows slanted titles (hand-drawn in a constructed style), and a monumental "m" surrounded by a cloudy shape that already remind of the torn paper style designs which became sandberg's trademark (see also the next few stories). the frontis photo shows cornelis baard, the museum's director until his death in 1936, who contributed the texts.

the asymmetric page layout with all page numbers at the lower right, and sans-serif type in contrasting weights reveal an influence of the "new typography" design philosophy.

among the artists still widely known today is german painter heinrich campendonk (left) who had been close to the expressionist group "der blaue reiter" around wassily kandinsky and franz marc.