Poetism
ポエティスム / 1923–1934 / Style / Avant-garde
The programme of the Czech avant-garde group Devětsil, extending poetry onto the page and into life itself. Its 'picture poems' combining photomontage with type, its compositions of circles and diagonals, and its vivid two-colour printing turned poetry books, magazines and posters into one continuous field of experiment.
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At a glance
Visual cues
- Photomontage juxtaposed with type
- Compositions of circles and diagonals
- Two vivid, restricted colours
- Typography as poetry
Best used for
- Poetry collections and cultural programmes set as typographic picture poems
- Two-colour risograph posters where circles, rules and photographs rhyme
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Dictionary entry
- Type
- Constructivist grotesques mixed across playful sizes, letters allowed to behave as images
- Composition
- Circles, diagonals and rules dividing the page and choreographing photomontage fragments
- Material
- Two vivid inks, typically red with black or blue, on warm book paper
- Caution
- Building the page with pure constructivist severity drops the lyric play between word and image, leaving engineering rather than a poem.
- Further study
- Karel Teige's theory and book designs / The page layouts of the magazine ReD / The picture poem as a form
Related entries
- The New Typography (ニュー・タイポグラフィ)Shared effects: Technique.Compare Poetism and The New Typography
- Constructivism (構成主義)Same Avant-garde lineage.Compare Poetism and Constructivism
More from Avant-garde
Continue through styles in the same Avant-garde family, prioritised by shared effects.
- Fluxus (フルクサス)Shared effects: Intimacy.
- Expressionism (表現主義)Shared effects: Intimacy.
- Vorticism (ヴォーティシズム)Shared effects: Technique.
Browse all Avant-garde entries
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