Wednesday, December 5, 2018

Lithographic Posters (Early Twentieth Century)

Wassily Kandinsky
Poster for first Phalanx Exhibition, Munich
1901
lithograph
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Johan Thorn Prikker
Exhibition of Dutch Art in Krefeld
Kaiser Wilhelm Museum
1903
lithograph
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Ferdinand Hodler
Poster for Secession Exhibition, Vienna
Ver Sacrum (Sacred Spring)
1904
lithograph
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Anonymous Dutch designer
Poster for National Exhibition of the Book
Stedelyk Museum, Amsterdam
1910
lithograph
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

sweet reader, flanneled and tulled

Reader unmov'd and Reader unshaken, Reader unseduc'd
and unterrified, through the long-loud and the sweet-still
I creep toward you. Toward you, I thistle and I climb.

I crawl, Reader, servile and cervine, through this blank
season, counting – I sleep and I sleep. I sleep,
Reader, toward you, loud as a cloud and deaf, Reader, deaf

as a leaf. Reader: Why don't you turn
pale? and, Why don't you tremble? Jaded, staid
Reader, You – who can read this and not even

flinch. Bare-faced, flint-hearted, recoilless
Reader, dare you – Rare Reader, listen
and be convinced: Soon, Reader,

soon you will leave me, for an italian mistress:
for her dark hair, and her moon-lit
teeth. For her leopardi and her cavalcanti,

for her lips and clavicles; for what you want
to eat, eat, eat. Art-lover, rector, docent!
Do I smile? I, too, once had a brash artless

feeder: his eye set firm on my slackening
sky. He was true! He was thief! In the celestial sense
he provided some, some, some

(much-needed) relief. Reader much-slept with, and Reader I will die
without touching, You, Reader, You: mr. small-
weed, mr. broad-cloth, mr. long-dark-day. And the italian mis-

fortune you will heave me for, for
her dark hair and her moonlit-teeth. You will love her well in-
to three-or-four cities, and then, you will slowly

sink. Reader, I will never forgive you, but not, poor
cock-sure Reader, not, for what you think.  O, Reader
Sweet! and Reader Strange! Reader Deaf and Reader

Dear, I understand youyourself may be hard-
pressed to bare this small and un-necessary burden
having only just recently gotten over the clean clean heart-

break of spring. And I, Reader, I am but the daughter
of a tinker. I am not above the use of bucktail spinners,
white grubs, minnow tails. Reader, worms

and sinkers. Thisandthese curtail me
to be brief: Reader, our sex gone
to wildweather. YesReaderYes – that feels much-much

better. (And my new Reader will come to me empty-
handed, with a countenance that roses, lavenders, and cakes.
And my new Reader will be only mildly disappointed.

My new Reader can wait, can wait, can wait.) Light-
minded, snow-blind, nervous, Reader, Reader, troubled, Reader,
what'd ye lack?  Importunate, unfortunate, Reader:

You are cold. You are sick. You are silly.
Forgive me, kind Reader, forgive me, I had not intended to step this quickly this far
back. Reader, we had a quiet wedding: he&I, theparson

&theclerk. Would I could, stead-fast, gracilefacile Reader! Last,
good Reader, tarry with me, jessa-mine Reader. Dar-
(jee)ling, bide! Bide, Reader, tired, and stay, stay, stray Reader,

true. R.: I had been secretly hoping this would turn into a love
poem. Disconsolate. Illiterate. Reader,
I have cleared this space for you, for you, for you.

– Olena Kalytiak Davis, from shattered sonnets, love cards and other off and back handed importunities (Bloomsbury, 2003)

Franz von Stuck
Poster for International Health Exposition, Dresden
1911
lithograph
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Ernst Deutsch
Salamander (Shoes)
1912
lithograph
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Peter Behrens
German Workers Union Exhibition, Cologne
Art in handcrafts, industry. trade and architecture
1914
lithograph
Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Edward McKnight Kauffer
Exhibition of Modern Art
The London Group
ca. 1915
lithograph
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Jacob Jongert
Apricot Brandy
ca. 1920
lithograph
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Julius Gipkens
York Gold - Garbáty Neu!
ca. 1920
lithograph
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Dagobert Peche
Public Exhibition of Fashion Fabrics
Wiener Werkstätte
1921
lithograph
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Willy Dzubas
Deutschland - Hamburg Chilehaus
1925
lithograph
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Anton Lavinsky
Film Poster - Battleship Potemkin 
1926
lithograph
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Anonymous Russian designer
Vive la Commune
Film Poster - The New Babylon
1929
lithograph
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston