{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O154425"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O154425/"}},"images":null,"see_also":null},"record":{"systemNumber":"O154425","accessionNumber":"CIRC.126-1970","objectType":"Print","titles":[{"title":"In memoriam Konrad Bayer","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"Dom Sylvester Houedard was a Benedictine monk and eminent theologian, but also a pioneer, in Britain, of concrete poetry, a poetic form in which the arrangement of words and letters in a pattern on the page relates to the meaning or emotional impact of the poem. Using concrete poetry as a kind of springboard Houedard developed a way of making more purely abstract or pictorial images with the typewriter keys. He wrote that \"During 1945 I realised the typewriter's control of verticals and horizontals, balancing its mechanism for release from its own imposed grid, (and) offered possibilities that suggested (I was in India at the time) the grading of Islamic calligraphy from cursive (naskhi) writing through cufic to the abstract formal arabesque, that 'wise modulation between being and not being'”. \r\n\r\nKonrad Bayer was an important writer who belonged to the radical and experimental 'Vienna Group' (1954-1960) of writers. He died by suicide in 1964.\r\n\r\nThis is one of a number of so called typestracts by Houedard in the museum’s collection. Some contain a legible arrangement of words, others are abstract, often resembling the drawings of the Russian Constructivists.","physicalDescription":"Image composed of a square area of lower-case black letters from the keys making the words 'konrad bayer' which resolve into an irregular honeycomb pattern of hexagons. The image is on paper pasted down onto card. Overall is a pattern of narrow-spaced horizontal lines which appear to be made from residual glue.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Houedard, Dom Sylvester","id":"A15939"},"association":{"text":"artist","id":"AAT25103"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"paper","id":"x30308"},{"text":"typewriter","id":"x42875"},{"text":"ink","id":"x39739"}],"techniques":[{"text":"typescript","id":"x33813"},{"text":"typewriter","id":"AAT233655"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Typescript in black and red on paper","categories":[{"text":"Prints","id":"THES48903"},{"text":"Typography","id":"THES260188"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":[],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"LVLE","id":"THES49657"},"free":"","case":"MP","shelf":"311","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"print","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"England","id":"x28826"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1964","earliest":"1964-01-01","latest":"1964-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"18.7","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"card","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"20.2","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"dsh 30 10 64 / in memoriam konrad bayer","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"the artist's initials and date of work in typescript, vertically, down top left side. title in black at top left, title at lower left"}],"objectHistory":"","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"By Dom Sylvester Houédard: typestract, 'In memoriam Konrad Bayer', 1964","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Taken from Departmental Circulation Register 1970"},{"reference":{"text":"<i>Dom Sylvester Houédard : Visual Poetries</i>, London : Victoria and Albert Museum, 1971","id":"AUTH354625"},"details":"6","free":""}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[{"text":"Bayer, Konrad","id":"N7194"}],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[{"text":"concrete poetry","id":"AAT55932"}],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["CIRC.126-1970"],"accessionNumberNum":"126","accessionNumberPrefix":"CIRC","accessionYear":1970,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-04-03","recordCreationDate":"2008-05-09","availableToBook":false}}