The New Typography

autonomous laws, which are independent of nature. Is it then surprising
that its representations at first baffle the unsophisticated viewer, who is
used to something completely different, or even actually repel him? Lazy
and hostile people are still trying to make it appear contemptible in the
eyes of others. and describe it as nonsense. These are the same people
from whose physical attacks Manet's "Olympia" had to be protected by the
police, a picture that is today one of the most precious treasures of the
Louvre. Their prattling is too empty and unimportant to be taken seriously.
We have recognized today that art does not consist in superficially copying
nature, but in the creation of form that takes its laws not from the external
appearance of nature but from its internal structure. Nature, the engineer,
builds her structures with the same economy, technical care, and sureness
of deduction as we of today do in our paintings. In our new art we have
ended the conflict between "being" and "seeming," for both are identical.
The new painting shows clearly what it is: an unrepresentational, pure,
painterly harmony.
It appeals above all to the eyes. and rejects the feeble substitutes of emo­
tional appeal through tragedy or joy. These are reserved for the private life
of the individual: they are a barrier between him and the picture as a cult
form. Here modern painting shows that it has developed out of the collec­
tive spirit of the time.
It follows from the total preoccupation of the painters of today with their
own times that in the creation of their pictures they prefer to make use of
new techniques, such as spraying and enamelling. They are often con­
cerned with making a model picture, i.e. a picture that, according to its
technique and form, can be mass-produced. This is another proof of the
collective attitude to life. which in this case prefers to do away with the lim­
itation of the single. unique picture. Colour and surface are often no longer
enough: various new materials are needed to create form, such as wood,
metal, paper, and so on.
It was the American Man Ray who gave us the photogram, in technique and
form an entirely new art.
He tried, in the field of photography, the technique that is truly of "today,"
to create an original art-form that would be independent of nature and gov­
erned by its own laws. His photograms, made without camera, and appear­
ing as if by magic on paper that is merely sensitive to light, are as remote
from nature as they are in their own way true and exist in their own right.
They are the perfect poetry in form of modern man.
That photography offers still other possibilities for art and design is shown
by the construction of Co-op. illustrated on this page. And free (i.e. not