LUDWIG HOHLWEIN (1874-1949) AGFA. Circa 1935. 19 3/4x15 1/2 inches. Druck H. Sonntag & Co., Munich. Condition B+: repaired tears and restoration in margins and image. Where Hohlwein's early posters were influenced by the Beggarstaff Brothers and were progressive, if not revolutionary, in design, his images during the years leading up to the Second World War are almost hyper-realistic in execution. While still stylized and immediately recognizable as Hohlwein's, they lack much of the graphic creativity that marked his work several decades earlier and represent a very conservative approach to illustration. Curiously, although Hohlwein was departing from his trademark style, his modernist approach to poster design lived on in the work of many of the artists who left Europe for the United States.
