Exhibition announcement “Pirchan Exhibition”, Kestner-Museum, Hanover, 1917

Emil Pirchan (1884–1957) studied architecture at the class of Otto Wagner (1841–1918) from 1903 to 1906 at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts. He subsequently worked primarily as a commercial artist, and from 1919 was among the leading stage designers in the German-speaking world. By his own admission, the universally talented artist created more than 1,500 works of commercial art when he lived in Munich between 1908 and 1918, including some 50 posters, numerous logos, bookplates, poster stamps, designs for packaging, technical illustrations for user manuals, calendar sheets, invitation cards, book illustrations, templates for flyleaves, coloring books for children as well as playing cards. In 1913, he founded a private art school for advertising art in Munich. When working with smaller formats, Pirchan – much like with his posters – aimed at conveying trenchant pictorial messages. This also applies to the present uncolored version of the advertisement printed by the Hamburg printing company J.C. König & Ebhardt. What is striking is the designer’s liberal handling of his borrowings from the Middle Eastern form repertoire: A four-handed figure, reminiscent of Shiva, is sitting enthroned on a lotus flower commonly associated with Buddha depictions.

IR, 2023