Disrupting Design: Modern Posters, 1900–1940

El Lissitzky
Russian, 1890–1941
USSR Russische Ausstellung (USSR Russian Exhibition), 1980 reproduction after 1929 original
Rotogravure on paper
Merrill C. Berman CollectionEl Lissitzky’s posters masterfully combined his political beliefs with a Constructivist sensibility. The artist promoted Stalin’s vision of Russia at international exhibitions, including this one for a 1929 exhibition at the Kunstgewerbemuseum in Zürich. Merging two photographs of joyful Russian youths, El Lissitzky aimed to imply the equality of the sexes within communism and the Soviet state. The figures loom over display furniture, which refers to the artist’s stands that he designed for the Polygraphic Exhibition held in Moscow in 1928.

Ladislav Sutnar
Czechoslovakia, 1897–1976
Vystava Moderniho Obchodu (Modern Commerce Exhibition), Brno, 1929
lithograph on paper
Merrill Berman CollectionWriting in his 1961 book Visual Design in Action, Ladislav Sutnar noted, “In our ‘visual civilization,’ words are superseded by images, drawings, graphs and other visual symbols which convey the message faster, more reliably and more convincingly than verbal descriptions.” Although he was writing about the field of information graphics, we can see within these posters the origin of his thoughts about conveying ideas through objects.

Lester Beall
American, 1903–1969
Radio—Rural Electrification Administration, 1937
Silkscreen on paper
Merrill C. Berman CollectionAmerican graphic designer Lester Beall used the principles of Sachplakat (object poster)—a direct approach in which an image signals an idea—to sell electrification to rural audiences in the United States. He was one of many artists employed by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) during the Great Depression of the early 1900s. Under this patronage, graphic artists experimented with the modern styles that originated in Europe, including the aesthetic of Constructivism—the simple geometry and collage of which appealed to Beall. In this poster, he used simple geometric shapes, diagonal lines, and plain, legible text to convey his message.

E. McKnight Kauffer
American, 1890–1954
Power, the Nerve Centre of London’s Underground, 1930
Lithograph on paper
Merrill C. Berman CollectionE. McKnight Kauffer created many posters for London’s Underground, including this one that participates in the tropes of modernist style. Text and image are integrated into the poster design, with visual representations of the station that generated electricity for London’s underground network. A dark, veiny forearm juts out of a swirling dynamo, with the corporate logo at its center, and a fist generates bolts of electricity downward to the “Underground.” The movement is orderly and connected, just like London’s tube system—at least as an aspiration, given how the designer communicated this complex set of information.