OTTO BAUMBERGER (1889-1961) ZURICH / DIE METROPOLE DER SCHWEIZ. 1929. 36x25 1/2 inches, 91 1/2x64 3/4 cm. Wolfsberg, Zurich. Condition B+: vertical and horizontal folds; repaired tears and minor restoration at edges and in margins. Over twenty years after the previous Zurich poster was created, Baumberger designed another poster for the city. Contrary to the earlier image, in this, "the two towers of the building [the Zurich Cathedral, the Grössmunster] dominate the composition. Highly demure, they stand in front of the landscape and divide the poster into two parts, the city, composed of geometric shapes of warm colors, and nature, depicted in a range of cold tones. The impressionist touch has completely disappeared here, to make way for a flattened color treatment. Geometry and simplification of forms, which is reminiscent of Cubist works, not only give a resolutely modern character to the poster, it also gives it a very urban aspect . . . The typography fits into the general design of the poster. Composed of sans serif letters, it seems to extend the urban architecture" (Paradis p. 105). This is the German version. Baumberger 155.1, Touristik 86.
