Willy Widman: Collotype Plate from PARIS 1929 [A. Calavas, Editeur]: Paris: Librairie des Arts Decoratifs, 1929. First edition [Maquettes D' Affiches, de Willy Widman (Cours De Publicite de L'Academie Moderne), Plate no. 50]. The collotype is in very good condition with a mild age-toning to the plate edge.
Plate size is 8.81 x 11.44 [22.38 cm x 29.05 cm] and blank on verso. Printed by Heliotype (collotype) at Librairie des Arts Decoratifs in Paris, France.
The PARIS 1929 portfolio consisted of 65 plates (including 13 coloured pochoirs) selected by A. Calavas to present an overview of current aesthetic sensibilities circa 1929. Sumpteous survey of graphic design, produced in 1929, in all its fields: posters, photography, tapestry designs, stage designs, wall paper, jewelry designs, etc.
In addition to his roles of editor and publisher Calavas was also a talented photographer who collaborated with many of the French designers of the period. His first-hand knowledge of the key players is evident in the talent roster assembled in this portfolio: Carlu, Cassandre, Gleizes, Krull, Lotar, Gray, Exter, Léger, etc. The portfolio is further enhanced by many examples of the hand-coloring Pochoir process.
From the frontis; "The spring-cleaning of 'Modernism' began with the refurbishment of decor and the purification of ornament. The new laws and laws which were to provide the foundation for the new sttyle appeared downright spartan. Rigorously defined surfaces and lines, clear-cut, distinctly arranged forms and a sharply altered range of colors, outwardly emphasized the claims for the 'new way of thinking and feeling.'"
Collotype (a dichromate-based process, also called Albertype, Artotype, Autotype, bromoil, Dallastype, Heliotype, Levytype, Paynetype, phototype, photoglyphic) is the most accurate and beautiful method of photomechanical reproduction yet invented. Collotype can produce results difficult to distinguish from actual photographs -- many old postcards are collotypes.
Collotypes have the advantage that they can render continuous graduations of tone without screen intervention. Making and printing of collotype plates is skilled and expensive work and the sensitized gelation surface is too delicate to produce more than two thousand impressions. For these reasons, collotype has been used for luxury publications and, since World War II, has been largely abandoned for other commercial purposes.
As a testament to its quality, many prints with an impressively high image resolution still remain from the Collotype era (circa 1880 to 1970) in perfect archival condition.
Collotype was consistently employed on a relatively small scale throughout most of the twentieth century as a specialist medium for the highest quality book illustrations and single-sheet fine art reproductions. Although its photographically accurate printing characteristics and exceptional colour qualities remain (even in the digital age) largely unparalleled, its economic viability was gradually eroded during the latter half of the twentieth century by faster and cheaper methods of print.
The ability of collotype to print in continuous tone without the use of a halftone screen enabled full colour images to be printed with far more fidelity than any of the subsequent screened, CMYK printing processes which dominate the print world today. Because of this it was able to achieve a wider colour gamut than is currently possible through digital imaging. A further advantage also lay in collotypes’ reliance on highly pigmented inks. These were far purer than modern offset litho inks, containing none of the synthetic additives now used to maintain maximum efficiency for high-speed commercial production.
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