BEAUTE Magazine Art Deco Style Paris 1929

The exceptional, art deco era Beaute magazine was published in Paris in an oversized format debuting in 1929 and continuing in the large format for the first fifteen issues. Beautifully printed in a variety of gravure tones, it continued with issue sixteen in smaller format until the late 1930s. Beaute is devoted to many aspects of modern popular culture and in particular the body, dance, natural living, physical culture and the art of the music hall. All this was brought together in an impeccably produced package, keenly aware of the stylistic era in which it was created. No indication as to the designers, art directors of this 1930s rarity.

Daring cover for a magazine aimed at wide audience; the second issue.

Folies Bergere dancer Feral Benga.

Physical culture and German gymnastics; photos by Gerhard Riebecke.

Beauty of the skyscraper.

Monsieur Henry's perfectly sculpted body ~ "l'homme plastique".

American dancer Stowitts performed at the Folies Bergere. 

Photographs by Nickolas Muray.

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 The Body Beautiful: Five Volumes New York 1930s

The contribution made by Americans to the bibliography on the body, its form and figure in photography, is almost non-existent until the 1930s when a number of small "art photography" publishers begin to explore the genre. Without precedent in the US, the Dodge Publishing Company in New York City, set an extremely high standard in 1935 with the first of its five volume series, THE BODY BEAUTIFUL. Above, the cover of volume one.

In retrospect, only a few American books on the subject of the nude would ever come close to the quality of this five volume set published from 1935 to 1939. These spiral bound collections of nudes were beautifully printed in fine gravure, rivaling the quality of production, typography and page design as well as compositional and experimentation as some of the noteworthy European publications of this period.  Daniel Masclet’s NUS La Beaute de la Femme and the PHOTOGRAPHIE Annuals published by Arts et Metiers Graphique in Paris may have inspired the editor of the series, Heywood Campbell, and his designers.

 Solarized nude, homage to Man Ray?

Each volume with approx. 80 photographs. Contributions, many in an experimental or avant-garde style, include William Rittase, Lejaren a Hiller, Frank Frapie, Ruth Bernhard, Alexander Allard, Remie Lohse, Forman Hanna, Pierre Boucher, Alexander Paal, Heinz Perckhammer, John Everard, Aaron Siskind, Lusha Nelson, Arnold Genthe, Bertram Park, Hajek-Halke and many others.

The overall size 8.75" x 11.75"; each volume spiral bound, published in a box with die-cut top revealing a portion of the cover photograph. These exceptional books are rarely seen, especially as a complete set and in such fine condition as those shown in this post.

Exceptional use of the two-page spread incorporating the spiral binding; photograph shifted to the left edge to create a white band on the right side as a design element. Note placement of the copy and the page number.

Double exposure/composite image by Lejaren a Hiller.

 Marvelous full-color photograph gracing the cover of volume three.

Literally tipping the photograph on edge, creating a dynamic of blacks on white  in contrast to the smaller image "forced" into the upper right corner with bleeds on two sides. Note the effectiveness of the spiral binding as part of the layout.

One of the few male nudes in the series.

Cover volume four. Wonderful camera/eye design: signed Hawkins.

 Simple, expansive image used as the title page for volume four with the typography centered over the nude figure. Letter and word spacing fits 
nicely with the volume of the photograph.

 Implying the motion of a dive. The black and white spaces and the sharp angles of the photo on the right create a brilliant spread. Once again the spiral binding is used as a design device.

 Nude dancers, flying. Inspired by Riebicke or Munkacsi or both.

 Photograph by Heinz Hajek-Halke. Superb montage of the same image: one reversed and placed over the other creating a "black" and a "white" image.

 Another exceptional cover design of montaged images by Hawkins.

 Ignoring and crossing the "centerline" to create a square, bleed image in a rectangular world. The white space and tall rectangular image is quite unusual page design as well.

Nude portrait, beautifully echoing the cover photograph of Sasha Stone's classic FEMMES published in Paris 1933.

Surreal photograph by Pierre Boucher, bleeding all four edges. 

_______________

eBay store link at top of the page

vasta@earthlink.net

@vasta_archives

BEAUTE Magazine Art Deco Style Paris 1929

The exceptional, art deco era Beaute magazine was published in Paris as an oversized format debuting in 1929 and continuing for the first fifteen issues. Beautifully printed in a variety of gravure tones, it continued with issue sixteen in smaller format until the late 1930s. Beaute was devoted to many aspects of modern popular culture and in particular the body, dance, natural living, physical culture and the art of the music hall. All this was brought together in an impeccably produced package, keenly aware of the stylistic era in which it was created. No indication as to the designers, art directors of this 1930s rarity.

Daring cover for a magazine aimed at wide audience; the second issue.

Folies Bergere dancer Feral Benga.

Physical culture and German gymnastics; photos by Gerhard Riebecke.

Beauty of the skyscraper.

Monsieur Henry's perfectly sculpted body ~ "l'homme plastique".

American dancer Stowitts performed at the Folies Bergere. 

Photographs by Nickolas Muray.

____