Search: Special Collections


Basic |  Guided |  Advanced |  Tips


    Full Details


Studio International
Journal of Modern Art

Item date(s): Various

Walter Whall Battiss  (1906-1982) - (featured artist)


Pages: See notes
Size: 300mm
Language: English


Place publication: London
Publisher: Studio International

Additional notes:
Two volumes of "Studio International" were purchased in order to obtain the 'advertisements' inserted into these volumes (# 183 and #186) by Walter Battiss. It was the custom at that time to bind the single copies into volumes. The magazine had separate numbering for the advertisements, usually i-viii at the beginning and ix to, say, xv, at the end. This was separate from the numbering of the contents of the magazines. Unfortunately the advertisements (numbered separately from the text numbering) had been removed, as was the custom, before binding.

The two volumes we have are therefore essentially useless apart from the kind of content they carried at that time.

Included, however, with this item are copies of the covers of the volumes in question and the correspondence and the advertisements which Battiss had with the editor at the time.

Subsequently, in 2024, we obtained the complete (unbound) copies of Studio International with all the Battiss's 'advertisements' - as follows:

January 1972. Volume 183. Number 940. page v. First multiple mini-mobile monument on wheels in Africa in the Indian Ocean, Natal, dedicated to YOU. Walter Battiss, Pretoria, South Africa.

April 1972. Volume 183. Number 943. page vii. Untitled Woodcuts. Walter Battiss. Pretoria. South Africa.

May 1972. Volume 183. Number 944. page ii. String Thing from Africa Acquiring Experience in Europe (Madrid; Ibiza; London; Natala; Southern Crete. Walter Battiss, Pretoria, South Africa.

September 1972. Volume 184. Number 947. page vi. Seychelles. Drawing by Battiss.

October 1973. Volume 186. Number 959. page xviii. Open tent for contemplating the cosmic origins of art. (watercolour signed by Battiss).

December 1973. Volume 186. Number 961. page xii. To Daniel Spoerri from Walter Battiss. Dear Dan, Have edible MASONGA worms from Africa for you. Luv Walter.

July / August 1974. Volume 188. Number 968. page x. Rubber Stamped Art by Battiss.



Reference note:
Additional material.

Statements for blocks from Feb - July, 1972.

Invoices from Vanguard Booksellers for subscriptions to the magazine for 1972 and 1973 at R20 p.a. and a hand-written letter from Fanny Klenerman (the famous owner of the bookshop): "Sorry our new Book Keeper was really officious. Please forgive".

Letters from Thelma Watt including a meeting in July 1971 and an undated letter from Martin Rewcastle.

Advertisement proofs for November and December 1973.

Ref: GB/30312







© Jack Ginsberg Centre for Book Arts (JGCBA). All rights reserved.