Du journal illustré au magazine moderne : l’hebdomadaire VU (1928-1940), un effort de moyennisation de l’avant-garde ?

Abstract

The weekly newspaper VU (1928-1940) is known for the avant-garde inspirations of its iconography and for its pioneer role in the history of photojournalism. The following study situates it at the heart of an international network, consisting on one hand of artists and typographers linking it to the Union des Artistes Modernes, the Bauhaus and the New Typography, on the other of innovative media companies: the Deberny & Peignot foundry, the Dorland advertising agency and Condé Nast’s publications. VU’s unique design, a product of its creators’ aesthetic as well as commercial demands, dilutes elements of artistic modernism in a more ordinary visual modernity, borrowed from advertising or the specialised press. It seems to enable it to seduce a specific segment of the french middle-class, and to introduce a new hybrid formula, characterized by its miscellaneous editorial content and, to a great extent, defined by its graphic appearance. Neither a bourgeois journal, nor a popular illustrated weekly, VU signals the rise in France of the magazine format and of a middlebrow visual culture.

Keywords

• avant-garde
• culture de masse
• design
• middlebrow
• modernité