{"title":"Manuel Gasser","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"szenen-aus-dem-leben-der-rennfahrer","title":"Szenen aus dem Leben der Rennfahrer","description":"\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eLoosely translated as “Scenes from the Lives of Racing Cyclists”, this remarkable portfolio is the earliest artist's book in the collection and the only example dating from the 1940s. Conceived at the peak of the Second World War, it anticipates by more than two decades many of the conceptual strategies, aesthetic concerns, and modes of appropriation that would later become associated with the postmodern artist’s book.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAlthough it makes no political statement, the work explores the drama of competition. Through twenty-nine photographic press clippings of Tour de France cyclists, meticulously collected by Manuel Gasser over the course of a decade and arranged in a striking graphic sequence by Hans Falk, the portfolio captures both the poetry and the brutality of professional cycling. Newspaper fragments are transformed into a cohesive visual narrative through an elegant gravure presentation and a masterful sense of rhythm and composition.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eManuel Gasser (1909–1979), who grew up in Lucerne, was one of the most influential Swiss journalists and cultural figures of his generation. Between 1929 and 1930, he worked in Arles for the Bern newspaper \u003cem\u003eDer Bund\u003c\/em\u003e, reporting on the newly established Camargue nature reserve. He later served as the Paris cultural correspondent for the \u003cem\u003eNeue Zürcher Zeitung \u003c\/em\u003e(1930–1933) before becoming a founding editor of both \u003cem\u003eAnnabelle\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eDie Weltwoche\u003c\/em\u003e. He contributed to \u003cem\u003eDie Weltwoche\u003c\/em\u003e from 1933 to 1946 and again between 1951 and 1957, while also serving as a correspondent in Berlin (1946–1949) and London (1949–1951). In 1958, he became editor-in-chief of the influential cultural magazine \u003cem\u003eDu\u003c\/em\u003e, a position he held until 1974.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHans Falk (1918–2002), a Zurich-based graphic designer and painter, was one of Switzerland’s leading poster artists. A committed leftist and an outstanding typographer, Falk brought a sophisticated \u003cem\u003emise-en-scène\u003c\/em\u003e to the portfolio’s design. The collaboration between Gasser and Falk resulted in a work of extraordinary originality, issued in an edition of only one hundred copies.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe historical significance of \u003cem\u003eSzenen aus dem Leben der Rennfahre\u003c\/em\u003er has been recognized by Martin Parr and Gerry Badger, who devote a full discussion to the work in \u003cem\u003eThe Photobook: A History\u003c\/em\u003e, Volume III (Phaidon, p. 284). They describe it as:\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“An astonishing production [...] The book’s interest lies not just in the fact that it was done at all, but in its conception and execution. It is a superb demonstration of the art of combining the ephemeral and the throwaway – newspaper cuttings of cycling photographs from France and Switzerland, collected over ten years before the war – with a jewel of a setting.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eMore than an exceptional photobook, \u003cem\u003eSzenen aus dem Leben der Rennfahrer \u003c\/em\u003estands as a prophetic work. Gasser’s iconographic research and the appropriation of media imagery, as well as Falk’s visual structure and graphic sequencing, prefigure postmodern artistic practices that would only become recognised decades later. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Metabooks","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54454022439251,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1068\/8898\/6963\/files\/SzenenAusDemLeben.png?v=1785559511"}],"url":"https:\/\/metabooks.art\/collections\/manuel-gasser.oembed","provider":"Metabooks","version":"1.0","type":"link"}