The Graphic World of Paul Peter Piech

The first monograph on acclaimed Brooklyn-born, UK-based designer Paul Peter Piech, this volume brings together 120 key works from the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum and the University of Reading in the UK. Having worked as a printmaker producing prints, posters and books for much of his career, Piech's own pieces often carried stylistic traces of the advertising industry, giving his works a bold, rugged style that became immediately recognizable. His graphic images--sometimes joyful, sometimes angry, but always inventive--tackled the political concerns of the late twentieth century, imbuing them with his forthright personal beliefs (Piech was an ardent pacifist). The Graphic World of Paul Peter Piech collects Piech's most vibrant works, and includes a text by curator and art historian Zoe Whitley that traces the artist's biography and stylistic influences, offering the reader a contextualizing vision for this influential designer's career.
Paul Peter Piech (1920-1996) was a graphic artist, printer and publisher. He studied at Cooper Union and worked in advertising before being posted to Cardiff during the Second World War. Settling in Britain after the war, he worked in advertising and then as a freelance graphic artist, and set up his own press (the Taurus Press) in 1959 to print and disseminate more politically committed work.