?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200
FRITZ KAHN (1888-1968) DER MENSCH ALS INDUSTRIEPALAST. 1926. 38 1/2x19 1/2 inches, 97 3/4x49 1/2 cm. Fricke & Co., Stuttgart. Condition B+: minor tears along sharp vertical and horizontal folds. Paper. Dr. Fritz Kahn was an Orthodox Jewish gynecologist in Berlin, who published popular illustrated books like Die Zelle (The Cell) and Die Juden als Rasse und Kulturvolk (The Jews as a Race and Cultural People). In his books and articles, he "visualized the structure and function of the human body in a very unique way. His magnum opus Das Leben des Menschen (The Life of Man, 1922-1931) fascinated laymen as well as scientists with its visual analogies and metaphors and their unusually expressive and contemporary design" (http://www.fritz-kahn.com). For the illustrations of this five-volume set, Kahn supervised the publisher's designers as they created the more traditional illustrations, while "for more complex images, Kahn commissioned freelance painters, architects, and graphic designers who implemented his ideas in their own styles" (Ibid). This poster of The Human as Industrial Palace is exemplary of one of his conceptual designs, presenting a playful but instructive comparison between industrialism and anatomy, and elevating the traditional medical diagram into 20th century graphic design. When the Nazis took power, Kahn's books were banned and publicly burned, and Kahn left Germany for Palestine and then the U.S., with the help of his friend Albert Einstein. While some of his works were translated into English, without the resources to produce new books, Kahn fell into obscurity. His innovative designs were still influential to future artists, and the first exhibition of his works, Fritz Kahn - Maschine Mensch, opened in Berlin in 2010 and featured this mechanical image.
