Whitechapel Art Gallery
Agam Lifshitz Zaritzsky, poster, 1969
Work for the Whitechapel Art Gallery began for the Director, Mark Glazebrook. Hollis introduced the German typeface Block, roughly contemporary with the original Gallery building. Only slowly did a coherent style emerge under a later Director, Nicholas Serota.
The majority of posters were A3 and mailed with newssheets and invitation cards. The type was set so that as far as possible it was not interrupted by folds, and a new part of the message appeared as the sheet was opened out.
Client: Whitechapel Art Gallery
Date: 1970–1989
Agam Lifshitz Zaritzsky, catalogue, 1970
Mario Merz
David Bomberg
Frida Kahlo and Tina Modotti – Exhibition guide, catalogue and poster, 1982
“The exhibition guide and poster were both printed using red and green: overprinted these gave a black, and accounts for the slightly strange look of the off-black reproductions. The catalogue was one of the last of the letterpress printing era.”
4 Comments on “Whitechapel Art Gallery”
Hollis mentioned in a Type Radio interview that the Block type was pasted-up, one letter at a time.
The use of text figures (h/t) is a little unexpected.
There are also a bunch of serif, secondary typefaces in here : Century Expanded for the Agam Lifshitz Zaritzsky poster, Century Old Style on the Open one as well as in the Frida Kahlo and Tina Modotti catalogue.
Christopher Wilson’s wonderful book Richard Hollis designs for the Whitechapel gives 1969 as the date of the first poster — Hollis actually had two stints as the main designer for the Whitechapel Art Gallery, first between 1969 and 1973, then from 1978 to 1985.
Thank you, Stéphane! I’ve adjusted the date.
Thanks for the additional IDs, too. I decided not to tag them. I don’t doubt they are correct. It’s just that the images shown here are so small (it’s an old post), the smaller types are barely discernible.