Friday 24 November 2023

Edward McKnight Kauffer - part 4

Hailed in his lifetime as “the poster king,” E. McKnight Kauffer (American, 1890–1954) believed that the street was an art gallery for the people. While living in England between 1914 and 1940, Kauffer produced radical posters for advertising that introduced modernism to the public. He experimented in provocative ways with line, form, space, and colour to promote services and products. He did not limit himself to posters, and designed a remarkable range of book covers, rugs, theatrical productions, and more, continuing his work in New York from 1940 until his death.

For more biographical notes see part 1, and for earlier works, see parts 1 - 3 also.

This is part 4 of a 6-part series on the works of E. McKnight Kauffer:


1930 London's Underground
 colour lithograph poster 101.6 x 63.5 cm

1930 For Pull use Summer Shell
colour lithograph poster 75.6 x 114.3 cm
MoMA, New York

1930 Play Between 6 And 12, The Bright Hours.
Go By Underground
colour lithograph poster 101.6 x 63.5 cm

c1930-35 Untitled drawing
 pen and ink 19.6 x 16.5 cm

1930s Bexoid, Trade Literature
colour lithograph

c1930s Plato
preliminary collage for an unidentified design incorporating cut-out photographs of Michaelangelo's Moses, and an écorché male figure seen from behind
V&A Museum, London

late 1930s Still Life: A Rose in a Glass
oil on board 27 x 21.9 cm
V&A Museum, London

1931 Roman Britain, St. Albans by Motor Bus Route no. 84 or Green Line Coach Route H
lithograph poster 50.2 x 32.7 cm
MoMA, New York

1931 Shop Between 10 and 4 The Quiet Hours and by Underground
colour lithograph
London Transport poster

1931 Stonehenge: See Britain First on Shell
colour lithograph poster 76 x 113.6 cm

1931 The New Forest: See Britain First on Winter Shell
colour lithograph poster 76.2 x 114.3 cm
MoMA, New York

1931 You Can Be Sure of Shell
colour lithograph poster 80 x113 cm
MoMA, New York

1931 Nigger Heaven by Carl van Vechten

No other contemporary work of literature received the volume and intensity of criticism and curiosity that greeted Carl Van Vechten's 1926 novel. The bestseller generated a storm of controversy because of its scandalous title but also fed an insatiable hunger for material relating to the Black culture of Harlem's jazz clubs, cabarets, and social events.

Here is a Harlem where upper-class elites discuss art in well-appointed drawing rooms; rowdy and lascivious drunks spend long nights in jazz clubs and speakeasies; and politically conscious young intellectuals drink coffee and debate the race problem in walk-up apartments. At the center of the story, two young people--a quiet, serious librarian and a volatile aspiring writer - struggle to love each other as their dreams are slowly suffocated by racism.

Dust Jacket
pencil and gouache on paper 55.9 x 38.7 cm

Adora at a Party
 pencil and gouache on paper 55.9 x 38.7 cm

Adora's House in the Country. Mary at the Window
pencil and gouache on paper 55.9 x 38.7 cm

At the Winter Palace
pencil and gouache on paper 55.9 x 38.7 cm

Black Venus
pencil and gouache on paper 55.9 x 38.7 cm

Byron and Lasca Dance Together
pencil and gouache on paper 55.9 x 38.7 cm

Byron and Mary
pencil and gouache on paper 55.9 x 38.7 cm

Byron and Mary
pencil and gouache on paper 55.9 x 38.7 cm

Byron Leaves Lasca's Apartment
pencil and gouache on paper 55.9 x 38.7 cm

Byron Writes from Nigger Heaven
pencil and gouache on paper 55.9 x 38.7 cm

Lasca
pencil and gouache on paper 55.9 x 38.7 cm

Mary Waiting
pencil and gouache on paper 55.9 x 38.7 cm

The End
pencil and gouache on paper 55.9 x38.7 cm

The Murder
pencil and gouache on paper 55.9 x 38.7 cm

The Scarlet Creeper
pencil and gouache on paper 55.9 x 38.7 cm

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1932 Aero Shell Lubricating Oil
design for Shell-Mex and British Petroleum
pencil, pen and ink, gouache, and airbrush on paper
 41.8 x 27.8 cm
© Victoria & Albert Museum, London

1932 Aero Shell Lubricating Oil
design for Shell-Mex and British Petroleum
pencil, pen and in and Gouache on paper 38.2 x 27.5 cm
© Victoria & Albert Museum, London

1932 Aeroshell Lubricating Oil
colour lithograph poster

1932 Bodiam Castle - Wherever You Go You Can Be Sure of Shell
colour lithograph poster

1932 By the Rushy - Fringed Bank
colour lithograph on cream wove paper 101.4 x 63.5 cm
Art Institute of Chicago, IL

1932 Design for a Shell poster
pencil, pen and ink, watercolour and kaoliníte, with airbrush and collage, on paper 40.6 x 27.3 cm

1932 Economise in Time, Temper, Petrol by Using Winter Shell
colour lithograph poster 75.6 x 114.3 cm
MoMA, New York

1932 Fortnum & Mason  Ltd.
Trade literature

1932 Go Great Western to Cornwall
colour lithograph poster for Great Western Railway
101.6 x 63.5 cm

1932 Go Great Western to Devon
colour lithograph poster 99.8 x 61.5 cm

1932 Go Great Western to Devonshire
colour lithograph poster for Great Western Railway
100.5 x 61.3 cm

1932 Great Western to Cornwall
colour lithograph poster 98.7 x 60.9 cm


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