WILL CARTER MAN OF LETTERS AT NEW MAGDALENE LIBRARY
Calligrapher Carver Artist -work of Will Carter at Magdalene Library
Few calligraphers are also sculptors. And few leave such an impression on the world of art . The Cambridge exhibition of Will Carter’s work , cleverly subtitled Man of Letters, introduces us to a lifetime of remarkable dedication to a little acknowledged sphere of skill . The venue is sensational : the much lauded award winning Magdalene Library is just the right place for someone with so many Magdalene connections - Will and his Family lived in Audley Cottage, still there on Chesterton Lane, and his work was intermittently connected to the College. Quite a triumph nevertheless to have his work featured as the first exhibition in such a much praised example of the best of modern architecture.
Will Carter began his life in print simply. A tour of the Oxford Press as a child - he left it with the calling card he had created and never looked back - had piqued his interest But it was not until his mid twenties, in 1937 , he came across Monotype Goudy Text. It lead him to the German calligrapher Rudolph Koch who had championed the blackletter style. It did not last long as an association. Koch died three years later and his son Paul , his apprentice, was killed on the Russian front - their workshop reduced to ruin by bombing. .The Song of Solomon a beautiful rendition of the sensuous Bible text created by Will Carter, remains and is one of the most lovely and original elements in this exhibition and testimony to the Koch association.
The Rampant Lions Press was Will Carter’s lifelong project , yet he did not limit his skill to paper. Exceptionally he carved letters in wood and stone. Will also took his skills to the wider market. He worked as a part time designer for Max Reinhardt’s publishing company in London. He initiated Klang, a hugely influential style (there are some brilliant book covers here to show it off) and he credited the long dead Koch for its success, remarking that once bitten by the blackletter bug it was hard to throw off its influence.
This exhibition stretches the average person’s knowledge but also rewards the expert eye too. As a member of the former category I did learn a lot.
It is not a surprise to learn that Will soon struck an alliance with the sculptor David Kindersley . They devised and designed their own joint typeface, christened Octavian ( after some wrangling) by Will’s brother.). The two artists had their distinguished talents in cinque with one another . It led to success. In 1961 - Will went on a lecture tour of the United States . Dartmouth College, New Hampshire recognised the talent from over the pond. They commissioned panels for their donors to the celebrated Hopkins Centre and secured Will as a resident for months on end. There it was he developed the famous Dartmouth Typeface it became a useful bridge between existing styles - even though critics have seen it as regressive when compared to Will’s other work at the time.
This world of type has planes of its own, often unexplored and certainly of great intrigue. absorbed in this exhibition , you discover things you never knew you wanted to know. Like Book Jacket Design. It is possibly the area where we meet Will Carter on an everyday level. His designs for leading volumes of the sixties are integral to that decade’s remarkable impact on national creativity .
To see this Man of Letters’ work in the distinguished halls of arguably the most successful modern public building of our decade is delightful, instructive and illuminating .And it is so disparate. As well as the typeface and lovely documents, there are carvings , brilliant skilful, striking - from breadboards for an anniversary to stunning inscriptions on the graves of famous literary figures.
This is a quirky instructive show. Make sure you go and see it in the new Library.
Open every morning from 10.30 to noon and 2 until 3.30
How I wish that this simple announcement could be rendered in Will Carter’s brilliant style. I shall certainly go back to my own calligraphy with a sharpened ambition and a spring in my hand.
