Poster for the exhibition Gustav Klimt Stoclet Frieze at the art gallery of Gustav Nebehay, June 1920

With an exhibition of Gustav Klimt’s (1862-1918) designs for the Stoclet Frieze, the Viennese art dealer Gustav Nebehay (1881-1935) opened his new gallery premises on Kärntner Ring in June 1920. The poster for the event, executed as a color lithograph, was created by architect, designer and graphic artist Dagobert Peche (1887–1923). Its central motif is a colorful head with headgear in profile. In the spirit of Art Deco, however, this head is so decoratively dissolved and abstracted that the underlying motif is not immediately recognizable: the poster, designed by Gustav Klimt in 1898, for the first exhibition of the Vienna Secession Ver Sacrum. Theseus and Minotaurus. Strictly speaking, Peche only used one detail, namely the head of Pallas Athena with her Corinthian helmet as a characteristic recognition feature. The bellicose Greek goddess was invoked by Klimt in her role as patroness of the arts and freely adapted by Peche.

MR, 2021