Arts et métiers graphiques: literature, typography and advertising in a tempered modernism

My dissertation discusses the French graphic arts magazine Arts et métiers graphiques. The first chapter briefly explores the periodical’s history. Appearing in 68 bi-monthly installments between 1927 and 1939, AMG aspired to be a luxuriously crafted encyclopedia on graphic design and the art of the book, with articles written by well-known art critics, designers, printing professionals, but also literary authors. The second chapter considers the literary dimension of AMG. Contributions by literary authors were not “literary” per se, but rather addressed the mainstay topics of the magazine. Apart from that, the periodical was mainly preoccupied with the material surrounding a literary text and its visual manifestation, rather than its content. AMG also sought to change and renew the way literary texts were laid out and printed through experimenting with the layout of literary texts. At the same time, the luxurious lead articles resulting from these experiments were advertisements for the typographic companies that created AMG, just like the magazine in its entirety was a showcase of modern deluxe printing. In conclusion to the second chapter, I argue that literature was an applied or a decorative art in AMG. The magazine seems to question the idea that typography is secondary to (literary) contents, and often considered the former more important than the latter. Literature, indeed, was the support of typography and a base material for typographic experiments, and thus instrumental in the magazine’s defense and illustration of the graphic arts. The third chapter focuses on the periodical’s position towards contemporary aesthetic innovations and its period – modernity – in general. I show that this was a somewhat careful stance that avoided extremes, which I characterize as a “tempered modernism,” or “modernisme tempéré”. AMG sought to find a balance between innovations and tradition. It wanted to be modern, but simultaneously preserve worthwhile aspects of the past. Rather than being of the avant-garde or arrière-garde, AMG was right of its time, and, as such, modern, however tempered this modernism may have been.status: publishe