untitled
Print
15/09/1964 (made)
15/09/1964 (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 | By Dom Sylvester Houédard: 'K permutation poem', typewriter 'drawing', 1964 |
Physical description | Card covered with thin paper. The whole covered with a pattern of narrowly spaced parallel lines apparently made of glue stains. The image a large 'K' to the left, made up of typed letter 'x's.From this 'K' radiates an elliptical pattern of 'x's toward the right margin, but not extending beyond the height of the 'K'. The whole is typed in black. |
Dimensions |
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Marks and inscriptions | dsh 150964 (Lettered in vertical format at the top left of the sheet with the artist's initials and date.) |
Credit line | Acquired from The Lisson Gallery, London in 1971. |
Production | This image was made a month before Circ 56-1971 but they bear a formal relationship to each other. 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.56-1971 (Ensemble) |
Bibliographic references |
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Collection | |
Accession number | CIRC.55-1971 |
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Record created | June 6, 2008 |
Record URL |
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