Bayer, Herbert - Shortly Before Dawn - photo art postcard (V&A)
- Condition : Unused
- Dispatch : Next Day
- Brand : None
- ID# : 230643820
- Quantity : 1 item
- Views : 1
- Location : United Kingdom
- Seller : justthebook (+1699)
- Barcode : None
- Start : Sun 13 Jul 2025 06:54:57 (EDT)
- Close : Run Until Sold
- Remain : Run Until Sold

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Seller's Description
- Art Postcard
- Work of art title: Shortly Before Dawn
- Artist (if known): Herbert Bayer (1900-85)
- Media or other details: Gelatin silver print (photograph)
- Publisher / Gallery: V&A Photography Centre (London)
- Postally used: no
- Stamp & postmark details (if relevant):
- Size: Modern
- Notes & condition details:
NOTES:
Size: 'Modern' is usually around 6in x 4in or larger / 'Old Standard' is usually around 5½in x 3½in. Larger sizes mentioned, but if you need to know the exact size please ask as this can vary.
All postcards are not totally new and are pre-owned. It's inevitable that older cards may show signs of ageing and use, particularly if sent through the post. Any faults other than normal ageing are noted.
Stock No.: A1354
Please ask if you need any other information and I will do the best I can to answer.
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I will give a full refund if you are not fully satisfied with the postcard.
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Herbert Bayer (April 5, 1900 – September 30, 1985) was an Austrian and American graphic designer, painter, photographer, sculptor, art director, environmental and interior designer, and architect. He was instrumental in the development of the Atlantic Richfield Company's corporate art collection until his death in 1985.
Biography
Training and Bauhaus years
Herbert Bayer's 1925 experimental universal typeface combined upper and lowercase characters into a single character set.
Bayer apprenticed under the artist Georg Schmidthammer in Linz. Leaving the workshop to study at the Darmstadt Artists' Colony, he became interested in Walter Gropius's Bauhaus manifesto. After Bayer had studied for four years at the Bauhaus[1] under such teachers as Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee[2] and László Moholy-Nagy, Gropius appointed Bayer director of printing and advertising.
In the spirit of reductive minimalism, Bayer developed a crisp visual style and adopted use of all-lowercase, sans serif typefaces for most Bauhaus publications.[3] Bayer is one of several typographers of the period including Kurt Schwitters and Jan Tschichold who experimented with the creation of a simplified more phonetic-based alphabet. From 1925 to 1930, Bayer designed a geometric sans-serif titled Proposal for a Universal Typeface (Herbert Bayer, universal) that existed only as a design and was never actually cast into real type.[4] These designs are now issued in digital form as Bayer Universal (P22 Type Foundry Bauhaus Set). The design also inspired ITC Bauhaus and Architype Bayer, which bears comparison with the stylistically related typeface Architype Schwitters.
In 1923 Bayer met the photographer Irene Bayer-Hecht at the first large Bauhaus exhibit in Weimar. They married in 1925, separated in 1928, had a daughter, Julia Alexandra, in 1929, and divorced in 1944.[5][6]
In 1928, Bayer left the Bauhaus to become art director of Vogue magazine's Berlin office.[1] He remained in Germany far later than most other progressives. In 1936 he designed a brochure for the Deutschland Ausstellung, an exhibition for tourists in Berlin during the 1936 Olympic Games – the brochure celebrated life in Nazi Germany, and the authority of Hitler. However, in 1937, works of Bayer's were included in the Nazi propaganda exhibition "Degenerate Art", upon which he left Germany. Upon fleeing Germany, he traveled in Italy.[2]
Time in the United States
In 1944 Bayer married Joella Synara Haweis, the daughter of poet and Dada artist Mina Loy. The same year, he became a U.S. citizen.[7]
In 1946 the Bayers relocated. Hired by industrialist and visionary Walter Paepcke, Bayer moved to Aspen, Colorado as Paepcke promoted skiing as a popular sport. Bayer's architectural work in the town included co-designing the Aspen Institute and restoring the Wheeler Opera House, but his production of promotional posters identified skiing with wit, excitement, and glamour.
In 1959, he designed his "fonetik alfabet", a phonetic alphabet, for English. It was sans-serif and without capital letters. He had special symbols for the endings -ed, -ory, -ing, and -ion, as well as the digraphs "ch", "sh", and "ng". An underline indicated the doubling of a consonant in traditional orthography.
While living in Aspen, Bayer had a chance meeting with the eccentric oilman, outdoorsman and visionary ecologist, Robert O. Anderson. When Anderson saw the ultra-modern, Bauhaus-inspired home that Bayer had designed & built in Aspen, he walked up to the front door and introduced himself[citation needed]. It was the beginning of a lifelong friendship between the two men and instigated Anderson's insatiable passion for enthusiastically collecting contemporary art.
With Anderson's eventual formation of the Atlantic Richfield Company, and as his personal art collection quickly overflowed out of his New Mexico ranch and other homes, ARCO soon held the unique distinction of possessing the world's largest corporate art collection, under the critical eye and sharp direction of Bayer as ARCO's Art and Design Consultant.
Overseeing acquisitions for ARCO Plaza, the newly built (1972) twin 51-story office towers in Los Angeles that served as the new company's corporate headquarters, Bayer was also responsible for the ARCO logo and designing all corporate branding related to the company. Prior to the completion of ARCO Plaza, Anderson commissioned Bayer to design a monumental sculpture-fountain to be installed between the dark green granite towers. Originally titled "Stairway to Nowhere" Anderson laughed[citation needed], but felt the Shareholders wouldn't see the irony; thus he suggested it be named Double Ascension and it still stands between the twin skyscrapers today.
Listing Information
Listing Type | Gallery Listing |
Listing ID# | 230643820 |
Start Time | Sun 13 Jul 2025 06:54:57 (EDT) |
Close Time | Run Until Sold |
Starting Bid | Fixed Price (no bidding) |
Item Condition | Unused |
Bids | 0 |
Views | 1 |
Dispatch Time | Next Day |
Quantity | 1 |
Location | United Kingdom |
Auto Extend | No |