Walter Schnackenberg

Kostume, Plakate, und Dekorationen, "Dancer in an Oriental Pageant"

1920

After Gustav Klimt, Max Eisler Plate #2, Dame mit Blumenhut (aka The Violet Hat); sepia monochrome collotype after the 1909 painting in oil on canvas. ...

DAS WERK GUSTAV KLIMTS, a portfolio of 50 prints, ten of which are multicolor collotypes on chine colle paper laid down on hand-made heavy cream wove paper with deckled edges; under ...

DAS WERK GUSTAV KLIMTS, a portfolio of 50 prints, ten of which are multicolor collotypes on chine colle paper laid down on hand-made heavy cream wove paper with deckled edges; under ...

DAS WERK GUSTAV KLIMTS, a portfolio of 50 prints, ten of which are multicolor collotypes on chine colle paper laid down on hand-made heavy cream wove paper with deckled edges; under ...

Walter Schnackenberg’s style changed several times during his long and successful career. Having studied in Munich, the artist traveled often to Paris where he fell under the spell of the Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s colorful and sensuous posters depicting theatrical and decadent subjects. Schnackenberg became a regular contributor of similar compositions to the German magazines Jugend and Simplicissimus before devoting himself to the design of stage scenery and costumes. In the artist’s theatrical work, his mastery of form, ornamentation, and Orientalism became increasingly evident. He excelled at combining fluid Art Nouveau outlines, with spiky Expressionist passages, and the postures and patterns of the mysterious East. In his later years, Schnackenberg explored the unconscious, using surreal subject matter and paler colors that plainly portrayed dreams and visions, some imbued with political connotations. His drawings, illustrations, folio prints, and posters are highly sought today for their exceedingly imaginative qualities, enchanting subject matter, and arresting use of color. SCHNACKENBERG: KOSTUME, PLAKATE UND DEKORATIONEN, a cardboard bound art book consisting of 43 prints of work by Walter Schnackenberg, 30 of which are color lithographs that are signed and some are titled and dated in the plate, as well as black and white prints and photographs with accompanying text by Oskar Bie; lithographs printed at Kunstanstalt Oskar Consee in Munich, other images printed by Gesellschaft Pick & Co. in Munich, the text and cover with color images by Schnackenberg front and verso printed by R. Oldenbourg in Munich; published by Musarion Verlag, Munich, 1920. The majority of Walter Schnackenberg’s artistic output was destroyed by bomb attacks in Munich in 1944. The highly publicized 2013 auction in New York of the recovered pre-war poster collection once belonging to German poster aficionado, Hans Sachs has reintroduced the world to Walter Schnackenberg’s graphic genius and priceless ephemeral art from a lost era. Besides the museum world, designer Karl Lagerfeld is one of the most prodigious collectors of Schnackenberg. Flipping through the pages of Kostume, Plakate und Dekorationen, it becomes quite clear that Schnackenberg’s collection is ground zero at the crossroads of early modern fashion where the cult of celebrity meets up with dance, music, theater and cabaret, film and the graphic medium. Berlin and Munich under Germany’s Weimar Republic in the first quarter of the 20th century produced just the atmosphere to feed this burgeoning industry. Rising inflation sparked a recklessness to live large for the moment and heightened a desire for escapism. An influx of Indian and East Asian dancers and musicians added to the artsy bohemian cultural mix. A new decadence and tolerance resulted. Film boldly featured provocative subject matter. Cabarets became popular venues giving rise to the demi-monde in which people from all social stations mixed more freely in a thriving underground economy and culture where there was a blurring of boundaries and of social codes. Noted art historian and cultural doyen, Oskar Bie astutely observes in his introduction to Schnackenberg’s publication that what unites the images is fantasy and advertisement. Schnackenberg uses the eye as an instrument to brilliantly construct and convey this double message. His personages never directly confront the viewer. Their eyes gaze off in the distance like those of the screenplayer and film star Hedamaria Scholz in Schnackenberg’s “Die Rodelhexe” movie poster. Their eyes follow the path of a dance composition or become a transfixed and ogling male gaze such as the iconic 1911 Odeon Casino...

DAS WERK GUSTAV KLIMTS, a portfolio of 50 prints, ten of which are multicolor collotypes on chine colle paper laid down on hand-made heavy cream wove paper with deckled edges; under ...

Original Vintage Poster by the Austrian artist Ferdinand Ludwig Graf, a member of the Hagenbund. This Viennese artist association moved as soon a...

This is an artist proof aquatint of a woman peeking around a cactus with ducks mysteriously hovering in the upper right corner and a giant beautiful cactus overgrowing. The mood is ...

One of a series of oil based monotypes on fine printmaking paper, subtle color design, symbolic and atmospheric figure/figures in cityscape

An oil-based ink monotype of an expressive figure turned from the viewer against a patterned green-grey background.

Signed limited edition lithograph, 'Les Amants', by Belgian/Dutch artist, Corneille. This is the artists own copy, L'épreuve d'artiste, from the edition of 40, Vincenzo Bitetti, Potenza of the rarer monochromatic version. Eau forte and aquatinte on craft paper with white highlights added. It is signed titled and dated in pencil by the artist. Presented in patinated wood frame under glass. Corneille was the pseudonym of Guillaume Cornelis van Beverloo, born July 4, 1922 in Liège (Belgium), of Dutch parents, and died in Auvers-sur-Oise (Val-d'Oise) September 5, 2010, he was a Dutch painter, engraver, sculptor and ceramist After attending the School of Fine Arts in Amsterdam, Corneille began exhibiting in 1946, then discovered surrealism. Co-founder in 1948 with Karel Appel, Eugène Brands, Constant Nieuwenhuis, Anton Rooskens and Theo Wolvecamp, of the Experimentele Groep in Holland movement which publishes the journal Reflex, anticipating the magazine Cobra (journal) which would appear the following year in Denmark, Belgium, then in the Netherlands. He is one of the initiators of Cobra with Karel Appel, Constant Nieuwenhuis, Asger Jorn and Dotremont. This group was soon joined by poets, painters and writers including Jacques Doucet, Pierre Alechinsky, Henry Heerup, Reinhoud, Else Alfelt, Carl-Henning Pedersen, Egill Jacobsen, C.O. Hultén, Anders Osterlind...

An original mixed media, Photo Etching, Aquatint, Drypoint on paper by the collaboration of two artists, Robert Flemming and Mizin Shin. This piece entitled Judgment Hour measure ...