The image typewriter. Carlos Boccardo, a visual artist between the publishing industry and the avant-garde

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to review Carlos Boccardo's trajectory as a graphic designer between 1968 and 1976 and analyze some of the images he circulated in books and magazines. Boccardo was part of the new left of those years and was associated with some of their editorial and magazine projects. At the same time, he made a living working as a designer in companies that revolutionized the book industry during that period. In several initiatives (the most prominent being the Serie Negra of Tiempo Contemporáneo publishing), Boccardo formed an intellectual partnership with Ricardo Piglia. The reconstruction of the space of sociability in which Boccardo unfolded his activity highlights the existence of exchanges and borrowing between different areas of social practice during that period. This zone of contact was expressed in the printed image, which also functioned as a means of cultural irradiation.