untitled
Print
20th century (made), early 1969 (made)
20th century (made), early 1969 (made)
Artist/Maker | |
Place of origin |
Dom Sylvester Houédard was a Benedictine monk and eminent theologian, but also a pioneer, in Britain, of concrete poetry, a poetic form in which the arrangement of words and letters in a pattern on the page relates to the meaning or emotional impact of the poem. Using concrete poetry as a kind of springboard Houédard developed a way of making more purely abstract or pictorial images with the typewriter keys. He wrote that "During 1945 I realised the typewriter's control of verticals and horizontals, balancing its mechanism for release from its own imposed grid, (and) offered possibilities that suggested (I was in India at the time) the grading of Islamic calligraphy from cursive (naskhi) writing through cufic to the abstract formal arabesque, that 'wise modulation between being and not being'”.
This is one of a number of so called typestracts by Houédard in the museum’s collection. Some contain a legible arrangement of words, others are abstract, often resembling the drawings of the Russian Constructivists.
This is one of a number of so called typestracts by Houédard in the museum’s collection. Some contain a legible arrangement of words, others are abstract, often resembling the drawings of the Russian Constructivists.
Object details
Categories | |
Object type | |
Title | untitled (generic title) |
Materials and techniques | Typescript on paper |
Brief description | Print, Dom Sylvester Houédard: Typewriter 'drawing' 1969 |
Physical description | Image in red and black. A black rectangular shape, containing three smaller rectangular shapes - suggesting a building, with a 'chimney' billowing black spots and a thread of 'o's floating off it at the right. This shape is set against a ground of red '(' s, laid out at closely spaced regular, parallel intervals. |
Dimensions |
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Credit line | Acquired from The Covent Garden Bookshop, London in 1970. |
Production | this work is not signed or dated Attribution note: All Houédard's typewriter 'drawings' from 1950-1970 were made using an Olivetti Lettera 22 typewriter. |
Subject depicted | |
Summary | Dom Sylvester Houédard was a Benedictine monk and eminent theologian, but also a pioneer, in Britain, of concrete poetry, a poetic form in which the arrangement of words and letters in a pattern on the page relates to the meaning or emotional impact of the poem. Using concrete poetry as a kind of springboard Houédard developed a way of making more purely abstract or pictorial images with the typewriter keys. He wrote that "During 1945 I realised the typewriter's control of verticals and horizontals, balancing its mechanism for release from its own imposed grid, (and) offered possibilities that suggested (I was in India at the time) the grading of Islamic calligraphy from cursive (naskhi) writing through cufic to the abstract formal arabesque, that 'wise modulation between being and not being'”. This is one of a number of so called typestracts by Houédard in the museum’s collection. Some contain a legible arrangement of words, others are abstract, often resembling the drawings of the Russian Constructivists. |
Bibliographic references |
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Collection | |
Accession number | CIRC.410-1970 |
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Record created | September 26, 2008 |
Record URL |
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