Verwende stets nur Gas 1924

Walter Dexel made this print, Verwende stets nur Gas, with lithographic ink on paper. It’s hard to say exactly when, but he was doing a lot of this kind of work in the 20s. Look at that incredible yellow rectangle, so bright and flat, floating in the black void. It’s like a stage set, or a sign, which, of course, it is. The lettering is so bold, so declarative: “Always use gas.” I love how the message is both commercial and somehow… cosmic. The red exclamation mark is a total power move; a vertical line pointing downwards to a kind of full stop. It's so simple but also so full of urgency. Like a warning, or a celebration? You can see echoes of the Bauhaus here, and maybe a little bit of Russian Constructivism, but Dexel has a thing of his own. It's this particular combination of stark geometry and something… else. Like a feeling. You see it in El Lissitzky too, who he knew. Art’s just one big conversation anyway, right? And this piece is a pretty loud statement.