02.24.16
Michael Bierut + Jessica Helfand | Audio

Magic on the Page


Michael and Jessica talk about the work of Matthias Buchinger (1674–1739), a specialist in micrography who was born without legs or arms. He was 29 inches tall and had 14 children with his four wives.

How did Buchinger manage to make his art? Seeing his works on paper in Wordplay: Matthias Buchinger’s Drawings from the Collection of Ricky Jay (at the Metropolitan Museum of Art through April 11) is like “seeing him doing these tricks before your eyes,” Michael says:
The paper is the proof of it. It's one thing to hear these claims, and it's another thing to stand at the Met in front of one of these pieces and see it as he did them at the time.
Also mentioned:
  • John Quiggin, Doing more with less: the economic lesson of Peak Paper
  • Matthias Buchinger: The Greatest German Living by Ricky Jay
  • Beyonce, Formation
  • Alvin Eisenman bio
  • Umberto Eco: How to Travel with a Salmon; The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana; From Internet to Gutenberg; “We Like Lists Because We Don't Want to Die”

    Thanks to Mohawk Fine Papers for sponsoring this episode. Join the 70th Anniversary celebration of Mohawk Superfine by sharing details about your favorite Superfine projects using the hashtag #dearSuperfine on Twitter or Instagram.


    Machine Room Cohoes, Mohawk Mills Inc, August 17, 1954 

    Subscribe to The Observatory on iTunes or your favorite podcast app, or follow Design Observer on Soundcloud.


  • Posted in: The Observatory



    Comments [1]

    Nice article. Thanks for sharing !!. Its an very great and amzing info you have shared.
    Taposy Rabeya
    03.15.16
    06:15


    Michael Bierut + Jessica Helfand Jessica Helfand, a founding editor of Design Observer, is an award-winning graphic designer and writer. A former contributing editor and columnist for Print, Eye and Communications Arts magazine, she is a member of Alliance Graphique Internationale and a recent laureate of the Art Director’s Hall of Fame. Jessica received both her BA and MFA from Yale University where she has taught since 1994. In 2013, she won the AIGA medal.

    Jobs | October 15