A Lexicon of Drawing: Problems and Solutions

Not so much a "how-to" on drawing, this book of unique art plates adds new insights to modern concepts of composition and design. Its beautiful presentation seeks to please the art collector as well as the student. A single theme, whose nuggets are scattered throughout, unifies these varied and original drawings done over a period of ten years: Understanding fundamentals enables the modern artist to present "all things in all ways," making the most of both observation and inventiveness. This volume consists only of images. While including "teaching text" handwritten into the illustrations, at the same time the artist crafted each plate to speak by example as a work of art. This seemingly modest but intensely interesting collection of black and white illustrations was done as freehand studies with the ball-point pen, originally sized for 8.5 x 11 inch paper. Some earlier pages were multiplied and passed on as teaching aids to students. The greater number served the artist in analytical experiment and study, showing what possibilities his insights can deliver in extending modern freedoms for the thoughtful viewer. Later pages are unique works of art seeking to carry into execution a creative wish. Overall this collection seems the offspring or sequel of a more severely formal earlier book: The Formulation of a Graphic Language.

Johannes von Gumppenberg has a lifelong interest in modern art and design which inspired him to explore the fundamentals underlying new freedoms. Over the years as he expressed his ideas in prepared plates, he used his own teachings to make each illustration an individual work of art. He was born in Germany in 1931 and came to the U.S. in the winter of 1949-50. He graduated 1955 in Illustration at Rhode Island School of Design and continued with Painting at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts. Next he received an MFA at Yale in 1962, studying color under Josef Albers. He has taught several years each at University of Illinois, serving as head of Basic Design, and at Kalamazoo College, MI, as department chairman. From there he decided to work privately, continuing his creative art, writing, and community teaching, first for twenty years in Lancaster, PA and, after retirement, in Rhode Island.