?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 4,000
PETER BEHRENS (1868-1940) DEUTSCHE WERKBUND - AUSSTELLUNG. 1914. 35 1/2x25 inches, 90 1/4x63 1/2 cm. A. Molling & Comp., Hannover-Berlin. Condition B+: repaired tears at edges, some affecting image; creases, abrasions and restoration in margins and image. Mounted on Japan. Behrens was a key figure in the birth of German graphic design as a member of the Munich Secession and founder of the Darmstadt Kunstler Kolonie, in 1901. He was also a driving force in the founding of the Werkbund, where industry and design came together. The Werkbund exhibition in Cologne in 1914 was the showcase of what would become a worldwide example for industrial design. Behrens' allegorical poster features a classical rendition of a man on horseback carrying a torch. Although a tenuous analogy can be made about the winds of change blowing the flame carried by the figure in the poster, the style of the image belied the modern progressive nature of the event and it was widely criticized. It was replaced by a strictly typographic poster by Ehmcke, making the remaining copies extremely rare and important. DFP-III 95, Kunst 15, Politische Plakate p. 18, Kunst-Ereignisse 57, Internationale Plakate 208.
