ABSTRACT



It is an irrefutable fact that many artists rely on typography and make use of it considering it as one more way of artistic expression. From the beginning of the twentieth century, typographical signs have had a more prominent presence in art and has been strengthening steadily since its plurality in the production of some contemporary artists. Following this direction, this paper aims to develop the study of typographical sign from an artistic point of view with the main hypothesis being to defend the idea that the recognition of these kinds of graphic signs not only act as a full plastic, but can also act as an engine generating the artistic production, overcoming and transcending the boundaries of different disciplines of plastic character and in this the letter should play the role of the thread that engages the different arts from a global, pluralistic and heterodox perspective.

To develop this idea, we first examine the issues inherent in the typographical sign and the elements that support the action of composing with movable type, considering the possibilities of the letter and artistic resources. While there have been many artists who have been pioneers in the attempt to harness the expressive function of formal features of the graphic sign, we analyze their form of expression and other aspects of their response when typographic symbols have been used by artists studied here as integrated elements in the visual image.

After analyzing the letter in twentieth century art and its relationship with printers and typesetters in the previous historical period, we study the letter from a current perspective, with a multidisciplinary approach, focusing on the sculpture by Jaume Plensa and Mar Arza, Daniele Buetti photography and experimental art by Bartolomé Ferrando, drawing comparisons and similarities between the actions of each author and defining the unique qualities of each, detailing the parallels between the highlights of this experimental approach that characterizes them.

Finally we discuss several examples of personal artistic production that shows the particular vision of how to deal with different materials to build the graphic sign and in addition proposing a form of differential expression, from the inclusion of language skills on the works previously analyzed by these contemporary artists.