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Catalog Data

Designer:
Herbert Bayer, (American, born Austria, active Germany and USA, 1900–1985)  Search this
Artist:
Herbert Bayer, (American, born Austria, active Germany and USA, 1900–1985)  Search this
Subject:
Ralph Waldo Emerson, American, 1803–1882  Search this
Client:
Container Corporation of America, Chicago, Illinois, USA  Search this
Medium:
Offset lithograph on glossy white paper
Dimensions:
35.6 × 28.2 cm (14 × 11 1/8 in.)
Type:
graphic design
Print
Object Name:
Print
Made in:
Aspen, CO, USA
Date:
1952
Description:
Advertisement for Container Corporation of America featuring artwork by Herbert Bayer. An oval, black and white photographic reproduction of Ralph Waldo Emerson appears at the bottom left of the composition. Printed in black ink, upper left: Ralph Waldo Emerson on a civilized nation; in red ink, upper right: Great Ideas of Western Man . . . ONE OF A SERIES. Abstract green, red, and black biomorphic shapes with text inside appear in the center of the composition. Printed in white, inside an oval-like, green shape at upper center/left: If there be a country / which cannot stand / any one of these tests— ; in black, inside a red shape with finger-like projections in the center: a country where knowledge cannot be diffused / without perils of mob law and status law; / where speech is not free; / where the post office is violated, mail bags / opened, and letters tampered with; / where public debts and private debts outside / of the state are repudiated; / where liberty is attacked in the primary / institution of social life . . . / where the laborer is not secured in the earnings / of his own hand; / where suffrage is not free or equal—; in white, inside a black, finger-like shape with two points on the left at lower center: that country is, in all these respects, not civil, / but barbarous; and no advantage of soil, / climate, or coast can resist / these suicidal mischiefs. / (Civilization, 1862). A blue circle is positioned between the red and black shapes. Printed in black, lower right corner: CONTAINER CORPORATION OF AMERICA; CCA logo printed directly to the left.
Credit Line:
Museum purchase with funding provided by the Buddy Taub Foundation, Dennis A. Roach and Jill Roach Directors
Accession Number:
2016-54-23
Restrictions & Rights:
Usage conditions apply
Copyright Notice:
© 2019 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
See more items in:
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum Collection
Drawings, Prints, and Graphic Design Department
Data Source:
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
GUID:
http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/kq43d77fec1-3c43-4606-81fa-7a879713a64d
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:chndm_2016-54-23