Konvička, Vladimír, author and design.

[ISOTYPE GRAPHICS IN CZECHOSLOVAKIA – PROGRESSIVE PEDAGOGY IN ZLIN] Obrazová statistika v kreslení škol měšťanských a vyššího stupně škol obecných [Pictorial statistics in the drawing of secondary schools and higher general schools].

Prague: Nákladem Československé grafické unie A.S. v Praze, [1934]. Quarto (29.3 × 20.8 cm). Original staple-stitched printed wrappers; 28 pp. including wrappers. Thirteen pages with isotype graphics, including two in color. Lacking the twenty-nine leaves of isotype illustrations, which were apparently issued along with the pamphlet. Very good, save for light rust from staples to gutter of last few leaves. Item #55185

Konvička (1900–1971), originally from near Hodonín, was a teacher and author of several works on pedagogy and schooling, with a special interest in art education, crafts, and visual statistics. From 1928 to 1934, he was active at the Masaryk Experimental Differentiated School in Zlín, the home of the illustrious Tomáš Baťa Shoe Company, which shaped the infrastructure and culture of the entire town. The school was one of three experimental schools in Czechoslovakia, which allowed students to explore various hands-on projects, rather than following traditional syllabi, and it had direct ties to Baťa. Derek Sayer describes the entrepreneur’s ambition for the town as follows: “Zlín in Moravia, Tomáš Baťa’s company town, is a show-piece of designed modern living. Its administrative building, a seventeen-story skyscraper built in 1937–38, may well have been the tallest building in Europe at the time. Still more distinctive was Baťa’s provision of standardized family houses and apartments for his workers and a range of social amenities from “Masaryk Schools” to hospitals to community centers… It is an eminently modernist vision, which the visiting Le Corbusier, for one, much appreciated” (Derek Sayer, The Coasts of Bohemia, p. 200). The building housing the progressive Masaryk Schools, built in 1927–1928 after plans by František Lydie Gahura, was also a cutting edge construction, which was demolished in 1988.

In the present work, Konvička speaks to drawing instructors at schools and outlines the basic principles of visual statistics. He discusses Otto Neurath and the Vienna Method, as well as the Moscow Insitute of Visual Statistics (Izostat), which in its own ways applied Neurath’s methods. Another figure whose work he singles out as pioneering in this field is Augustin Tschinkel. Via the Czech journal “Země Sovětů” (Land of the So­viets), various examples of Soviet Isotype illustrations have made it onto the pages of Konvička’s book. The pamphlet apparently accompanied twenty-nine leaves of isotype illustrations, which are described in detail within, but are lacking here.

As of June 2025, KVK, OCLC show no copies apart from the Czech National Library.

Price: €950.00

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