EARL'S COURT MOTOR SHOW. 1937. 391/2x241/2 inches. Baynard Press. Condition A-: pinholes and minor creases in margins. Japan. Although he was born in America, McKnight Kauffer spent his most creative years in Great Britain, acting as the "chef de file" of the new generation of poster artists. After he did the first revolutionary poster in 1919 for the Daily Herald, he received commissions from many major clients, the most important being London Transport. He designed 141 posters for them over a span of 20 years. Asked by Frank Pick to help redesign subway stations, Kauffer also created an extremely avant-garde gigantic photo-mural in the Earl's Court station in 1936. The year after, he was asked to do the poster for the Motor Show in Earl's Court. The poster is Kauffer at his best: powerful, eye-catching, and quite sophisticated. The image is very modernistic, with a photograph inserted in a geometric arrangement and extremely dynamic lettering. An archetypal example of the new style in graphic design that emerged in the 1930s.
