Warja Honegger-Lavater

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Warja Honegger-Lavater (September 28, 1913 - May 3, 2007) was born in Winterthur, Switzerland. She was a Swiss artist and illustrator noted primarily for working in the artist's books genre by creating accordion fold books that re-tell classic fairy tales with symbols rather than words (or even pictures).

Contents

[edit] Personal life

Three keys logo by Warja Honegger-Lavater.
Three keys logo by Warja Honegger-Lavater.

Honegger-Lavater spent the first nine years of her life in Moscow and Athens. In 1922, her mother (the author Mary Lavater-Sloman) and father Emil Lavater (an engineer) settled the family back in Wintherthur. After attending High School, Honegger-Lavater studied graphic arts in Zurich from 1931 to 1935 at the Fachklasse fur Grafik an der Kunstgewerbeschule Grafik (School of Applied Arts).

Studying in Stockholm, Basel, and Paris, she opened her own studio for applied design in Zurich in 1937 with Gottfried Honegger, her future husband. It was here that Honegger-Lavater embarked on her first profession as a designer of symbols, logos, and trademarks. One of her initial creations was the three keys logo of the Schweizerischen Bankverein (Swiss Bank Corporation)[1] and the logo for the Swiss National Exhibition of 1939.

After marrying Honegger in 1940, she bore two daughters: Bettina (1943) and Cornelia (1944).

From 1944 to 1958 she worked extensively with the young person's magazine Jeunesse designing the covers, supplying illustrations, and being responsible for typography.

Moving to New York in 1958, she began designing scientific illustrations for the publisher Visuals. It was during this early period in New York that Honegger-Lavater became influenced by American street advertising and began to utilize pictograms as graphic representations of linguistic elements in her work. In 1962 she finished her first book, William Tell, which was published by New York's Museum of Modern Art. This work consisted of a single sheet lithograph, accordion folded, with a legend listing the meanings of the various symbols (e.g., a single blue dot represents William Tell). The story proceeds chronologically as the book unfolds, and told entirely by using the symbols without words. She produced a growing number of similar works throughout the rest of her career.

Starting in 1963, the Paris based publisher Adrien Maeght began publication of a series of her folding books broadly entitled Imageries. These books consist of classic fairy tales from the Brothers Grimm, Charles Perrault, and Hans Christian Andersen. These were also done as accordion folded books with stories told using symbols rather than written language.

By 1995 she was creating videos of colors and symbols moving across a screen, set to music.

At the time of her death she was retired and residing outside of Zurich.

Honegger-Lavater was a direct descendent of the Swiss poet and physiognomist Johann Kaspar Lavater.

[edit] Works

[edit] Books

  • William Tell, New York : Junior Council, Museum of Modern Art, 1962 (OCLC 10911288)
  • Sunday Harlem Faith Temple gospel songs : Vorzingen einer Gruppe Handeklatschen Mitzprechers mitzingen Extatisches Himwerfen ohnmacht Tanzen, 1964? (OCLC 11552859)
  • Das hässliche junge Entlein (The ugly duckling), Basil : Basilius Presse, 1965 (OCLC 11552815).
  • Das Feuer und seine Höhlen (The fire and its caves), Basil : Basilius-Presse, 1967 (OCLC 74158294)
  • Ramalalup, Basil : Basilius Presse, 1967 (OCLC 12060192)
  • Le non-obéissant. The disobedient. Der Ungehorsame, Basil : Basilius Presse, 1968 (OCLC 2706173)
  • Imageries, (Perrault, Charles,; 1628-1703) Paris : A. Maeght, 1965-1982 (OCLC 18529065)
Retelling of 6 fairy tales by Charles Perrault in coded images and colors. Each volume is an accordion-fold, printed on one side, individually encased in lucite, all volumes in box slipcase.
(v. 1). Le Petit Poucet -- (v. 2). Blanche Neige -- (v. 3). Le Petit Chaperon Rouge -- (v. 4). La fable du Hasard -- (v. 5). La Belle au Bois dormant -- (v. 6). Cendrillon.
Also published individually:
  • Le Petit Poucet, Paris : A. Maeght, 1979 (OCLC 64394985)
  • Blanche Neige, Paris : A. Maeght, 1974 (OCLC 6463880)
  • Le Petit Chaperon Rouge, Paris : A. Maeght, 1965 (OCLC 4461512)
  • La fable du Hasard, Paris : A. Maeght, 1968 (OCLC 11584251)
  • La Belle au Bois dormant, Paris : A. Maeght, 1982 (OCLC 54661715))
  • Cendrillon, Paris : A. Maeght, 1976 (OCLC 7536039)
  • Die Rose und der Laubfrosch: eine Fabel (The Rose and the Tree frog: a Fable), Zurich : Edition Schlegl, 1978 (OCLC 48193811)
  • Spectacle: un conte, Paris : A. Maeght, 1990 (OCLC 24798997)
  • Tanabata, Paris : A. Maeght, 1994 (OCLC 33124107)

[edit] Videos

  • Les Imageries, 6 digital animation films, Paris : IRCAM, 1995
  • Design : Warja Lavater based on the work of Charles Perrault
  • Graphics Production : Mac Guff Ligne
  • Composer : Pierre Charvet

[edit] Music

  • Liedli für Mutter und Kind für eine Singstimme und Klavier (co-composed with Gustav Kugler), Zollikon-Zürich :; Sämann-Verlag, 1944 (OCLC 82351484)

[edit] Awards

  • Imagina 1995 (held by Institut National de l'Audiovisuel) awards for Les Imageries (video 1995)
    • Pixel-INA award in the Art category
    • European award of Media Invest Club
    • "meilleure bande son" (best sound track)

[edit] Exhibitions

[edit] Sources

  • Biography (French Language)
  • Biography (German Language) via SIKART
  • Biography (German Language) via Galerie Brigitte Weiss
  • Beckett, Sandra L. "Artists' books for a cross-audience - Warja Lavater" IN Studies in children's literature, 1500-2000, Dublin ; Portland, OR : Four Courts, 2004, pp. 163-166 (OCLC 56361783)
  • Carmin, Jim. "Warja Honegger-Lavater exhibition (Multnomah County Library)" IN BOOK_ARTS@LISTERV.SYR.EDU, Portland, OR, May 12, 2001
  • Kushner, Robert. "Review of Exhibitions - Warja Lavater at the Swiss Institute" IN Art in America vol. 85, no. 4 (April 1997), p. 122
  • Lavater, Warja. "Perception: When Signs Start to Communicate" IN The Faces of physiognomy : interdisciplinary approaches to Johann Caspar Lavater. Edited by Ellis Shookman. Columbia, SC : Camden House, 1993. pp. 182-187. (OCLC 28669014)
  • Moholy, Lucia. "Current and Forthcoming Exhibitions - Switzerland" IN Burlington Magazine vol. 105, no. 719 (February 1963), p. 85
  • Swiss Institute for Art Research (search for Artist: Lavater)
  • IRCAM (search for single term: Lavater)
  • Plath, Monika and Richter, Karen. Die Bildwelten der Warja Lavater "Schneewittchen" : Modelle und Materialien für den Literaturunterricht. Baltmannsweiler : Schneider-Verl. Hohengehren, 2006. (OCLC 71345203)

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ Evamy, Michael (2007). Logo. London, U.K.: Laurence King Pub. Ltd., 304-305.  "The UBS mark was originally created for the Swiss Bank Corporation in 1937 by a Swiss illustrator, Warja Lavater, fresh out of Zürich's School of applied art."
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