untitled (yellow, blue, red )
Print
24/06/1963 (made)
24/06/1963 (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 (yellow, blue, red ) |
Materials and techniques | Typescript on paper |
Brief description | By Dom Sylvester Houédard: colour poem by the translation series, typewriter 'drawing', 1963 |
Physical description | Image typed onto a sheet of thin paper in turn pasted to a card. Overall is a pattern of narrowly spaced horizontal lines which appear to be made of glue stains. Over this, the words yellow, blue, red and jaune, bleu, rouge, are typed vertically or horizontally, and interlocked, as if part of a crossword, with the English words on the left and the French on the right |
Dimensions |
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Marks and inscriptions | dsh 240663/ yellow blue red/ jaune bleu rouge/ (english translation by the author) (Lettered at top of sheet with with the artist's initials and date, with the words arranged as if they were in a crossword puzzle below, the English words on the left, the French on the right. The words 'english translation' etc, below these words.) |
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. |
Bibliographic references |
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Collection | |
Accession number | CIRC.52-1971 |
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Record created | May 30, 2008 |
Record URL |
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