E. McKnight Kauffer: The Artist in Advertising

摘要

For this major publication, contributing editors Caitlin Condell and Emily M. Orr assemble an impressive set of eleven essays that accompany their curated exhibition Underground Modernist: E. McKnight Kauffer, planned for Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York in 2021. Essentially monographic in approach and broadly chronologically arranged, it establishes in detail Kauffer's life and work in the context of his friends, supporters and patrons. One of its major contributions is to consider the designer in the round, ranging across diverse graphic work and beyond. In so doing, it substantially adds to the literature on this important designer.Edward Kauffer (1890-1954) was born in Montana, USA. He extended the name by which he became known in tribute to Joseph McKnight, a university professor who in 1912 supported Kauffer's travels to Europe. In their introductory essay, Condell and Orr usefully set out Kauffer's early years of experiment as an artist in London, where he settled in 1915. He initially joined various artists' groups, exhibiting with them and, on occasion, designing their catalogues and posters. Then followed his focus on the modern poster for which he became famous. Commissions came from, among others, the London Underground, Shell Mex & B.P. Ltd, the General Post Office and later, in the USA, American Airlines. Additionally, Kauffer's writings confirmed his reputation, notably as editor of The Art of the Poster: Its Origin, Evolution and Purpose of 1924 that covered the still relatively uncharted history of the poster.2 Elsewhere Kauffer declared that his intentions for the poster were to 'inflict[s] an impression, so to speak, like that of an electric shock on the mind of the passer-by' (p. 36). He showed his familiarity with Cubism, Futurism and Vorticism, and later with Constructivism and Surrealism, employing devices to channel the viewer's eye or to render the familiar strange. However, he was equally adept in drawing on an English pastoral aesthetic that he could adjust for various travel posters.