LETTERING
and calligraphy
Herbst
AUTUMN
These poems I chose and wrote in a calligraphy course during my studies in Art and Education in Mainz 1965, in the town of Gutenberg in Germany.
Diese Gedichte wählte und schrieb ich bei einem Schrift Kurs im Institut für Kunst und Werkerziehung in Mainz in Deutschland 1965, der Stadt in der Gutenberg lebte.
All photos included I took in November 2023 near the Barn Fron Uchaf and my Studio, where I had lived since
1991
Drawings from my Cinema Workshop with young people in the East End of London 1980 and some of our diary notes.
LETTERING
So far this was my AUTUMN booklet, spiral bound, that I handed out at Christmas 2023 to friends and members of my family.
Now I will bring up a wider understanding of why I wanted to do this. Here is ONE clue:
My art colleague in the German school in the 90s wrote to me after receiving this booklet:
Lieber Wilf,
Dank Dir für Dein zauberhaftes, recht nachdenkliches Herbst Büchlein.
Dear Wilf,
Thank you for your magical and pensive autumn booklet.
Ich stelle fest, dass du am Aufräumen, Sortieren und Zuordnen bist.
I get the impression that you are in the process of a clean up, sorting and assigning. Für mich schlägst Du mit dem Büchlein einen Zeitenbogen:
For me, with this booklet you create an arc of time:
Die perfekten Schriftbilder, gedanklich voll typisch jugendlich herbstlicher Ungewissheit und das Suchen und Sehnen nach dem Sinn der Vergänglichkeit, das sind Dokumente deiner damaligen Zeit (Jugend).
The perfect typefaces, the state of mind very typical for a young person, autumn-like uncertainty, that searching and longing for the sense of transience, that is a document of you at that time (Youth). Die zauberhaften Fotos sind aus Deiner Jetztzeit und dokumentieren hand- und fuß fest Deine Realität in einer neuen Landschaft, die Dich fest im Griff hat.
The magical photos are from your now time and a document of your solidly grounded life in a new landscape that holds you tight. You are very lucky, (thank you for letting me see the book) All the best for you and yours in 2024.
My own feeling is somewhat different. The identification with Don Quixote might just be seen as a humorous comment on my statuesque appearance and my own fights against “windmills”, as that is the story told by Cervantes who describes this backwards looking Spanish knight sitting on his horse Rocinante with gentlemen’s dreams next to Sancho Pancho on his donkey to fight windmills.
The poem dismantles all those allusions and I sympathize with that. On a serious note, politically speaking I feel floored and brought down to earth like the characters in this story at my autumn age, now. I am overwhelmed and drowned by contradictions and hopelessness that confronts me. Certainly that emotion was not my feeling when I came to England in the 70s. Then I was keen to do something towards injustices and for a changing society.
My colleague and friend brings me back to my art teaching in The German School London, the DSL 1987 to 2005.
During that time I collected many files and folders with visuals that inspired me and could also inspire others. Another Don Quixote illusion this collection is, now out in a garden shed. ONLY In parts these pictures could still be useful here and there.
I taught calligraphy, mostly for 13 year olds, SCHRIFT, as we call it in Germany, or what the English more accurately call ‘LETTERING”’.
As teaching in any school context does it simplifies everything, any real exploration doesn’t happen. I am glad no longer to be in that straightjacket.
Teaching – so we were told – should raise students’ consciousness. Therefore I asked myself, the students and others about the importance of any letter writing. What is the value of writing something down and what is it for ?
For myself I make the distinction between an instant urge to write something down as a confirmation of my thinking and a way to connect to others. On the other hand I value historical perspectives and expectations from past societies in comparison to ours. Does new technology make it ‘easier’ to communicate through writing ? Is visual care and “fun” now taken up by Advertising, designs of Brands and Computer technology?
I saw a falcon this morning gliding very majestically over our ground and I compared it to an airplane which in comparison lacks that sort of elegance and perfection. In essence the dream to fly like a falcon is still in us.
I am always interested in people who sense what they could be capable of, but who are not sure how to bring it out. This is the state you are often in as a teenager. This is where I sympathize with them.
I like to be with people who are NOT sure of themselves – as I never was
– but who at least partially manage to live with dreams that they discovered in themselves. Going through my own collections I discover myself in this way. The Autumn booklet is proof of that.
I liked the skill to set letters in a very controlled way and to take the right distances between them into account. I liked to apply patience until a whole page could be seen as a finished piece. That is what I did during my studies in 1965. I felt like a monk, ein Mönch, in a Cistercian monastery. I liked the feeling of going back in time and felt like executing a commission or a contract.
But then I tried to bypass that constraint as well and illustrated poetry. That way I escaped hard work of all those people in so many cultures who were asked and forced to put important words onto paper or stones. How arrogant. I suddenly feel that I followed an urge for independence and avoided THAT kind of service for my living.
But how naive I was to think that with that approach I could become a fully contented art teacher.
It is a privilege to follow the flying falcon in us but I know the need to accept our ground. That is what the Don Quixote poem is all about.
There is a side in me that likes to break rules and to express my freedom without admitting it loudly. But there is also a side that wants to resist this dreaming and doesn’t want to go on the street with felt pens and flags to fight injustices. I have held back.
My life, it is a riddle to me. That’s why I like to reflect on this story and this poem about Don Quixote and Sancho Panza and the end of their dreams. Now my age is my time in autumn. I look back and squeeze juices out of my past. That got me going over the years.
From here on I will show you examples of different kinds of lettering that I collected and that I still find exciting to show and worth keeping.
FREE SPONTANEOUS LINE DRAWING
Often done by children before they learn to write.
And “writing” with my children in the 90s.
My poster on the computer in the 80s.
My grandson Finlay on his 6th birthday.
Him at our place being six years old, in 2023.
Jo and Bob with Molly, born 2020.
… and one of my son’s many notes whilst on the phone calls in 2021. I got permission to show this here as I love people’s doodling. A graphologist said it may reveal our subconscious thoughts.
these tree trunk carvings I found recently near where I live, certainly done years ago by an unknown group of young people
A drawing from our Cinema Workshop with young people in the East End of London, 1980.
Pages from a scrapbook in 1980.
This is one of many scrap book entrances by Paul Hallam 1979. All together there are 750 pages in 18 Scrapbooks. After being digitised they were exhibited on a wall display in a centre in SÃO Paulo In 2018:
To communicate with people living in favelas.
They identified with what we did 1980 in London.
This is an inspirational group drawing from an educational paper in Germany in 1970.
I see it as a possible illustration of loud conversations, recalling the overlap of people wanting to be heard.
Such a lively approach!
I found this needle work in a village museum at the East Sea
near Rostock in Germany and liked the text and the way it is hung:
“Your own stove is worth a fortune, like gold”
…and agreed with this spray line in Lisbon, 2015.
Stonemason work, designs, contracted and manufactured stone monuments and carvings were traditionally produced within our families in Silesia and West Germany for over 200 years.
For me this is an example of an impressive family memorial, not a gravestone!
The Jewish cemetery in Breslau, now Wroclaw, in Poland, were monuments were delivered by Firma THUST in the 1920s.
I happen to know one of the few well-known Letter Carvers in Britain who lives near us in Llansilin:
John Neilson, letter carving and lettering designer.
He sent me this card with a CD of his tune improvisations with Karen Tweed.
A German friend, teacher, artist and lecturer expressed his wish to meet me in London in 1983.
He had an exhibition in Leicester. I admire his lettering style.
Here I display my own struggle with a hand written and corrected text that got me into a muddle.
When talking and thinking about “free” lines and artistic ingenuity, this artist springs into mind …it is Saul Steinberg
This artist I discovered in an exhibition near to us …
Leftovers from my teaching.
Coming back to CALLIGRAPHY
being inspiring, here is a good and witty example of handwritten lettering I enjoy.
A computerised pattern and
this commercial experience
Info printed for 94 countries in order to sell this battery-loaded travel shaver in another country, language and lettering.
Die ZEIT (German Newspaper) in an article on “Leben” Nr 27 1. Juli 1999 said:
‘Nearer to life’ was the reason why King Sejong did subject his people of Korea to a new lettering on 9th Oct 1446. “The sounds of our language can’t compare to Chinese language and writing style”, HE said.
Nowadays Chinese handset
“Who stays silent is on the side of evil”.
A page of the Gutenberg Bible.
A facebook entrance from A very good half jewish friend of mine on 5th Feb 2024.
Journalists & health workers being targeted… anybody just targeted…UK & US still sending weapons… unbearable tragedies unfolding each day – we’re witnesses but seem/feel powerless.
ﺟﺎﻣﻌﺔ ﺑﺎﺗﻧﺔ at ھﻧدﺳﺔ ﻣدﻧﯾﺔ Studied
ﻣدرﺳﺔ اﻟﺗﻘوى اﻟﺛﺎﻧوﯾﺔ ﻟﻠﺑﻧﯾن to Went ●
● Lives in Batna, Algeria
From Gaza City
● Engaged to Sar Ra
9 July 2023
ن ﻓﻲ
ۚ إِ ورﺣﻣﺔ
ًة ﱠد َو ﻣ
َﻧﻛم ﺑ ْﯾ
وﺟﻌل
َﻟ ْﯾﮭﺎ ُﻧوا إِ ﺳﻛ
ﻟﱢ َﺗ ز َواﺟﺎ
أَ ﺳﻛ ْم
ﻣن أَﻧﻔُ
ﻟﻛم
ﺧ َﻠق
ﮫ أَن