untitled (un typoeme/sombre)
Print
23/04/1963 (made)
23/04/1963 (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 (un typoeme/sombre) (assigned by artist) |
Materials and techniques | Typescript on paper |
Brief description | By Dom Sylvester Houédard: 'un typoeme / sombre', typewriter 'drawing', 1963 |
Physical description | Image with the words 'un typoeme sombre' at the top, with letters made from black type tumbling thinly across the page, with an added scattering of red full stops at top right. |
Dimensions |
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Marks and inscriptions | un typoeme/ sombre / dsh 230463 (Lettered at top of sheet with 'poem' , and at the lower right of the sheet with the artist's initials and date.)
|
Credit line | Acquired from The Lisson Gallery, London in 1971. |
Production | Attribution note: All Houédard's typewriter 'drawings' from 1950-1970 were made using an Olivetti Lettera 22 typewriter. |
Subject depicted | |
Associations | |
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. |
Associated object | CIRC.50-1971 (Ensemble) |
Bibliographic reference | Taken from Departmental Circulation Register 1971 |
Collection | |
Accession number | CIRC.51-1971 |
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Record created | May 30, 2008 |
Record URL |
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