Bestwishes
Print
ca. 1969 (made)
ca. 1969 (made)
Artist/Maker | |
Place of origin |
Dom Sylvester Houedard 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 Houedard 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 a more unusual example of his work which does not rely on the aesthetic of the typed letter, although the principle of poetry being an integral part of the visual image remains.
This is a more unusual example of his work which does not rely on the aesthetic of the typed letter, although the principle of poetry being an integral part of the visual image remains.
Object details
Category | |
Object type | |
Title | Bestwishes (assigned by artist) |
Materials and techniques | Screenprint |
Brief description | Dom Sylvester Houédard: Bestwishes, concrete poem, silkscreen print, c.1969 |
Physical description | The image takes the form of a template for a cut-out-and-construct card box; this is laid out in a cross shape on the sheet. In each of the panels which would form the sides, top and base of the box, the words 'best wishes' are repeated four times in parallel lines one below the other, but in each set the letters of each word have a different configuration in each line, for example, the letters are turned upside down or written back to front. At the bottom of the sheet, to the left are written the words 'CUBE CONSTRUCTION Cut Out/ Fold on Line/ Glue Tabs' and on the bottom right the artist's initials |
Dimensions |
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Marks and inscriptions | DSH (The artist's initials vertically, at bottom right.) |
Credit line | Acquired from John Furnival in 1970. |
Production | A note on the back of the mount suggests the date may be 1969. |
Subject depicted | |
Summary | Dom Sylvester Houedard 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 Houedard 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 a more unusual example of his work which does not rely on the aesthetic of the typed letter, although the principle of poetry being an integral part of the visual image remains. |
Bibliographic reference | Taken from Departmental Circulation Register 1970 |
Collection | |
Accession number | CIRC.443-1970 |
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Record created | September 12, 2008 |
Record URL |
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