spirale 5

Here’s a publication we didn’t know about until it was delivered to our door. Published in Bern between 1953 and 1964, spirale was a seminal international journal dedicated to concrete art, systemic design, and the emerging field of concrete poetry. It encouraged a move away from expressive abstraction toward a mathematical and geometric rationality. (Is that redundant?)

Here’s the fifth issue. It serves as a pivotal bridge between European and American modernism, as it was dedicated to Josef Albers during his guest professorship at the HfG Ulm. Prized for its inclusion of Albers’ perspective studies and his theoretical texts which laid the groundwork for his later work at Yale. Alongside Albers, the issue features contributions from Max Bill and Karl Gerstner. It’s a foundational document of Modernist design and constructive art movements. It’s also a wicked beautiful thing. Like, really.

Watch a flip-through of the whole thing here »