?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,000
THEODORE MATEJKO. (1893-1946) MATEJKO / PLAKATE. 1919. 371/2x491/2 inches. Condition B+: restored losses and repaired tears in margins; vertical and horizontal folds. Matejko was a prolific artist, practicing primarily after the First World War, who worked extensively on commercial commissions, but specialized in movie posters. His personalized style is realistically dramatic and vibrant, ignoring the ambient stylization of Art Deco, and through his output he can be considered the alter ego of the modernist Joseph Fenneker in Germany. This self-promotional poster, for Matejko's studio in Vienna, was created to encourage advertisers to take advantage of the post-war optimism and begin advertising again. It is brighter and more colorful than most of Matejko's work, boldly using minimal imagery and the white background to emphasize the message. Using a clever "the pen is mightier than the sword" visual analogy, he illustrates a fallen tin soldier over which he depicts a brush, a compass, and a lithographic inking roll. Previously unrecorded.
