“I truly believe that the present work is a rich source of discoveries, full of pleasant surprises,” was how the ‘modest prologue’ by Swiss designer Donald Brun started. It was written in 1964 for the volume that compiled the work of 18 graphic artists from Agrupación FAD, edited to commemorate the early years of their output.
Strictly in black and white, presumably for technical, and quite possibly budgetary, reasons, and with an impression by “Francisco Casamajó”, FAD’s benchmark graphic art company at the time, a superb display of dazzling works was presented. It included customary names in this blog and others with a lower profile, such as José Martínez Gómez and Francisco Graus.
In the book’s engaging introduction, design critic Joan Perucho talked about “the naked fertility of the eye through image”, quoting Paul Eluard. It also mentioned images that are easy to grasp and understand because they belong to a language of silence that cannot be articulated in words.
Perucho defined what was required to be a good graphic artist, stating that “graphic art is defined, approximately, by gestural brevity and expression. The graphic artist (…) suggests more than explains; synthesises more than analyses.”
The illustrations displayed on this post serve as an opening to the corresponding chapters of the 18 graphic artists, and are a perfect formalisation of Perucho’s words.