THE FASTER LANE / TYLER BRÛLÉ
Cover star
I might have told you this already but for the purpose of today’s column it’s worth repeating: I grew up in a household filled with magazines. One small but important detail I’ve left out over the years is that I also grew up in a household where rarely a weekend passed that didn’t see me dragged off in our white, wood-panelled Scout four-wheel drive (if you don’t remember this chunky little workhorse made by International Harvester, it’s worth looking up as they now have cult status amongst funky chaps living in suburban Sapporo) for a garage-sale tour, a church rummage-sale, a farm auction or a Saturday spent in thrift shops.
As I was a keen collector of National Geographic I could often be found shuffling through boxes under tables looking for missing editions to complete my collection. Occasionally I’d stumble across musty copies of Nova or Der Spiegel and get lost in the racy imagery and exotic advertisements, or I’d find a box of titles I’d never heard of and cart them back to the pile of books and other magazines my mother had amassed. Every couple of years, there’d be a big clear-out at the house but certain magazines were always spared – large-format copies of Chatelaine, special editions of Life and Time and Harper’s Bazaar from the 1950s.
Four decades later, many of those same editions are still with me and are moving into a new home in our HQ in Zürich. For the past few years, some of the finest volumes have been living in boxes in a nearby lock-up but over the coming week some of the most memorable Harper’s Bazaar covers executed by art director Alexey Brodovitch will take pride of place on new stretches of shelving and bookcases that are currently being erected in my office. It’s all rather fitting as Zürich is currently plastered with eye-catching posters promoting a new Brodovitch exhibition at the city’s Museum für Gestaltung.
After last Sunday’s radio show I ushered my partner Mats and colleague Gillian onto the number four tram, destination: the Museum für Gestaltung’s satellite space on the western edge of Zürich. As cultural institutions in Switzerland reopened about a month ago, I wasn’t sure what to expect on a somewhat grey Sunday. Would it be a snaking queue around the building? Or would we have the space to ourselves? Up the stairs and through the doors, it looked like any other Sunday in normal times – save for the stop-light at the door. There were plenty of people milling about the gift shop or mingling around to pay for a ticket. Inside the exhibition it was exactly as you’d want any exhibition devoted to the life of a great editorial talent – buzzy and full of curious fans.
The show starts with a tutorial on his life in Belarus, the graphic influences that informed his early work for retailers in Paris and promotional work for Swiss resorts and then, before moving into his work for Harper’s Bazaar, there’s a little nook showing amped-up, restored clips from Funny Face on a super high-res monitor. After this short tone-setter there’s a meandering, typographically precise overview of his best work for Harper’s Bazaar from all angles, on a range of formats. Aside from the well-known covers and spreads, one of the strongest parts of the exhibition is a section devoted to his advertising and promotional work for Prunier in Paris.
Next door to Brodovitch, the museum also has an exhibition dedicated to the work of René Hubert – a somewhat unsung master of Swiss fashion and creative direction renowned for his costume work in the film industry. The best stretch of the show is his work for Swissair and Hubert’s vision for not only uniforms but also the airline’s approach to art direction, cabin interiors and overall brand consistency. If you’ve been missing cultural excursions like this one, the good news is that both the Brodovitch and Hubert shows run until 20 June and, better still, many countries just dropped off of Switzerland’s quarantine list. Come for a visit!
