Poster for the Christmas Exhibition at the Vienna Künstlerhaus, 1929

The painter, designer and illustrator Berthold Löffler (1874–1960), who studied at the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts, returned to the school as a professor in 1907, where he educated a number of graphic artists who went on to have successful careers. While his early oeuvre was influenced by Jugendstil and folkloristic motifs, such as in Poster “Flying Putto”, Löffler arrived in the 1920s at a neo-Classicist design vocabulary, inspired by international art movements, as impressively illustrated by the poster for the Christmas Exhibition at the Vienna Künstlerhaus. The simple lines, the planar distribution of colors and the reduced composition are based on antique vases and relief art. By means of a skillful merging of a frontal and a profile view, the Janus face, crowned with a laurel wreath, symbolizes the traditional art genres of painting, sculpture and architecture.

MN, 2024