Museum Folkwang - Collection Online - »Our age has a new sense of form«

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»Our age has a new sense of form« – Posters in the 1920ies
I. Expressionist Posters
Expressionism was already widespread in painting before the First World War, but there were very few Expressionist posters before 1914. Only after the end of the First World War did this style find its way into the mass media, especially in posters and in film. It dominated here until around 1921/22, disappearing completely only a little later. At first it was political posters, appearing for the first time since the end of the Empire, which used this Expressionist style. This was especially true of posters for the national assembly elections (1919). Up to this point, the most brutal images ever shown in public had appeared. Posters for cultural events (film presentation, expressive dance performances, exhibitions etc.) were also designed in this highly emotional formal language. Here the film posters by Joseph Fenneker (1895–1956) deserves special mention. However, Expressionist posters found little application in product advertising.

II. Decorative Posters
To be exact, decorative posters are not specific to the 1920s – they naturally also existed in Art Nouveau. The particularity lies in their specific interpretation of the decorative. On the one hand, Art Nouveau was swept away, and on the other Art Déco had not (yet) appeared. A good example is in the art of Walter Schnackenberg (1880–1961). Especially in this area there was a significant international development, for example in France, where a sort of decorative Objectivity arose, which in turn influenced design in Germany and also in part Objective posters. With the growth of film posters a pictorial-decorative line generally appeared.

III. Objective Posters
Collected here are works which are part of New Typography, New Objectivity, Bauhaus and other currents, which developed from similar approaches. Noteworthy is the use of photography in its various forms up to and including photomontage. From this range there arose a series of works which defined styles in the long term, whose impact is still felt today. The sober (Objective) view of form and function fitted exactly with demands for good design as part of industrial mass production and the resulting changes in living conditions and rhythms. New means of expression using photography and typography determined the process of transformation and permanently altered the design of posters. The film posters by Jan Tschichold (1902–1974) – though initially not followed up – can show the potential in the concrete application of this new sense of form.
Exh_Title_S: »Our age has a new sense of form« – Posters in the 1920ies
Exh_Id: 1,475
Exh_Comment_S (Verantw): German Poster Museum
Exh_SpareNField01_N (Verantw ID): 242