Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 3

Walter Schnackenberg
Kostume, Plakate, und Dekorationen, "Odeon-Casino 1911"

1920

About the Item

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 poster. Most of all, their eyes are heavily-lidded and closed unto themselves, to an inner state, a dream, an escape, a fantasy. Whether it is to pass an hour in a cinema, an evening at a cabaret, to attend a modern dance performance or patronize a glitzy club, fantasy is what really is being sold. It is interesting to consider that all of this is sandwiched in between two commercial subjects which is essentially the bread and butter of Schnackenberg’s art book. On the first page, Schnackenberg, the artist, advertises himself. While the female face which he is shown creating takes on a double image with its shadow, suggesting the replicative nature of graphic art, there is only one Schnackenberg. The final color lithograph is a poster Schnackenberg created for Consee, the printer of Kostume, Plakate und Decorationen, who also specialized in printing business materials. In the modern age, the art of business had indeed become the business of art.
  • Creator:
    Walter Schnackenberg (1880 - 1961, German)
  • Creation Year:
    1920
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 13.25 in (33.66 cm)Width: 9.25 in (23.5 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    Chicago, IL
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU46731518013

More From This Seller

View All
Gerlach's Allegorien Plate #44: "Music" Lithograph
By Koloman Moser
Located in Chicago, IL
Koloman Moser (1868 –1918), AUSTRIAN Instead of applying his flair and art education solely to painting, Koloman Moser embodied the idea of Gesamt Kunstwerk (all-embracing art work) by designing architecture, furniture, jewelry, graphics, and tapestries meant to coordinate every detail of an environment. His work transcended the imitative decorative arts of earlier eras and helped to define Modernism for generations to come. Moser achieved a remarkable balance between intellectual structure (often geometric) and hedonistic luxury. Collaborating with Gustav Klimt and Josef Hoffmann, the artist was an editor and active contributor to Ver Sacrum, (Sacred Spring), the journal of the Viennese Secession that was so prized for its aesthetics and high quality production that it was considered a work of art. The magazine featured drawings and designs in the Jugendstil style (Youth) along with literary contributions from distinguished writers from across Europe. It quickly disseminated both the spirit and the style of the Secession. In 1903 Moser and Hoffmann founded and led the Wiener Werkstatte (Viennese Workshop) a collective of artisans that produced elegant decorative arts items, not as industrial prototypes but for the purpose of sale to the public. The plan, as idealistic then as now, was to elevate the lives of consumers by means of beautiful and useful interior surroundings. Moser’s influence has endured throughout the century. His design sensibility is evident from the mid-century modern furniture of the 1950s and ‘60s to the psychedelic rock posters...
Category

1890s Vienna Secession Figurative Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Gerlach's Allegorien Plate #51: "Summer" Lithograph
By Koloman Moser
Located in Chicago, IL
Koloman Moser (1868 –1918), AUSTRIAN Instead of applying his flair and art education solely to painting, Koloman Moser embodied the idea of Gesamt Kunstwerk (all-embracing art w...
Category

1890s Vienna Secession Figurative Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Gerlach's Allegorien Plate #35: "Love & Wine" Lithograph
By Koloman Moser
Located in Chicago, IL
Koloman Moser (1868 –1918), AUSTRIAN Instead of applying his flair and art education solely to painting, Koloman Moser embodied the idea of Gesamt Kunstwerk (all-embracing art work) by designing architecture, furniture, jewelry, graphics, and tapestries meant to coordinate every detail of an environment. His work transcended the imitative decorative arts of earlier eras and helped to define Modernism for generations to come. Moser achieved a remarkable balance between intellectual structure (often geometric) and hedonistic luxury. Collaborating with Gustav Klimt and Josef Hoffmann, the artist was an editor and active contributor to Ver Sacrum, (Sacred Spring), the journal of the Viennese Secession that was so prized for its aesthetics and high quality production that it was considered a work of art. The magazine featured drawings and designs in the Jugendstil style (Youth) along with literary contributions from distinguished writers from across Europe. It quickly disseminated both the spirit and the style of the Secession. In 1903 Moser and Hoffmann founded and led the Wiener Werkstatte (Viennese Workshop) a collective of artisans that produced elegant decorative arts items, not as industrial prototypes but for the purpose of sale to the public. The plan, as idealistic then as now, was to elevate the lives of consumers by means of beautiful and useful interior surroundings. Moser’s influence has endured throughout the century. His design sensibility is evident from the mid-century modern furniture of the 1950s and ‘60s to the psychedelic rock posters...
Category

1890s Vienna Secession Figurative Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Gerlach's Allegorien Plate #37: "Music" Lithograph
By Koloman Moser
Located in Chicago, IL
Koloman Moser (1868 –1918), AUSTRIAN Instead of applying his flair and art education solely to painting, Koloman Moser embodied the idea of Gesamt Kunstwerk (all-embracing art w...
Category

1890s Vienna Secession Figurative Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Gerlach's Allegorien Plate #20: "Song, Love, Music, Dance" Lithograph
By Koloman Moser
Located in Chicago, IL
Koloman Moser (1868 –1918), AUSTRIAN Instead of applying his flair and art education solely to painting, Koloman Moser embodied the idea of Gesamt Kunstwerk (all-embracing art w...
Category

1890s Vienna Secession Figurative Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Gerlach's Allegorien Plate #94: "Heads" Lithograph
By Koloman Moser
Located in Chicago, IL
Koloman Moser (1868 –1918), AUSTRIAN Instead of applying his flair and art education solely to painting, Koloman Moser embodied the idea of Gesamt Kunstwerk (all-embracing art work) by designing architecture, furniture, jewelry, graphics, and tapestries meant to coordinate every detail of an environment. His work transcended the imitative decorative arts of earlier eras and helped to define Modernism for generations to come. Moser achieved a remarkable balance between intellectual structure (often geometric) and hedonistic luxury. Collaborating with Gustav Klimt and Josef Hoffmann, the artist was an editor and active contributor to Ver Sacrum, (Sacred Spring), the journal of the Viennese Secession that was so prized for its aesthetics and high quality production that it was considered a work of art. The magazine featured drawings and designs in the Jugendstil style (Youth) along with literary contributions from distinguished writers from across Europe. It quickly disseminated both the spirit and the style of the Secession. In 1903 Moser and Hoffmann founded and led the Wiener Werkstatte (Viennese Workshop) a collective of artisans that produced elegant decorative arts items, not as industrial prototypes but for the purpose of sale to the public. The plan, as idealistic then as now, was to elevate the lives of consumers by means of beautiful and useful interior surroundings. Moser’s influence has endured throughout the century. His design sensibility is evident from the mid-century modern furniture of the 1950s and ‘60s to the psychedelic rock posters...
Category

1890s Vienna Secession Figurative Prints

Materials

Lithograph

You May Also Like

For Lisa
By Willem de Kooning
Located in Fairlawn, OH
For Lisa Color lithograph, 1984 Signed in pencil lower left (see photo) Numbered lower right corner Published to benefit the Los Angeles Children's Museum Printed by Brand X Editions...
Category

1980s Expressionist Figurative Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Mid Century Modern Clown print, hand signed 144/250 Russian born American artist
By Nahum Tschacbasov
Located in New York, NY
Nahum Tschacbasov Mid Century Modern Clown, 1956 Lithograph Signed, dated and numbered 144/250 in graphite on the front 34 x 27.5 inches Unframed, affixed to matting Published by American Color Slide Co, Ltd., New York Terrific uncommon vintage signed, numbered and dated mid Century modern lithograph from this interesting and distinctive -and undervalued Russian American artist. Highly collectible clown...
Category

Mid-20th Century Expressionist Abstract Prints

Materials

Lithograph, Pencil

Women of Intellect #6, Folk Art Lithograph by Estelle Ginsburg
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Estelle Ginsburg, American Title: Women of Intellect #6 Year: 1978 Medium: Lithograph, signed and numbered in pencil Edition: 150 Size: ...
Category

1970s Expressionist Figurative Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Hombres con Barca II, Modern Nude Lithograph by Francisco Zuniga
By Francisco Zúñiga
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Francisco Zuniga, Mexican (1912 - 1998) Title: Hombres con Barca II Year: 1984 Medium: Lithograph, signed, numbered and dated in pencil Edition: 40 Size: 24.5 in. x 34.5 in....
Category

1980s Expressionist Figurative Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Lovers in Blue - Original Lithograph, Stamp signature
By Pierre Ambrogiani
Located in Paris, IDF
Pierre AMBROGIANI (1907-1985) Lovers in Blue, 1974 Original Lithograph (Gourdon Workshop) Signed with the artist's stamp On vellum Arches 38 x 28 cm (c. 14.9 x 11 in) Excellent con...
Category

Mid-20th Century Expressionist Figurative Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Les Quais a Venise
By Jean Jansem
Located in San Francisco, CA
Artist: Jean Jansem (French/Armenian, 1920-2013) Title: Les Quais a Venise Year: 1966 Medium: Color lithograph Edition: Numbered 127/160 in pencil Paper: Arches paper Image size: 18....
Category

Mid-20th Century Expressionist Figurative Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Recently Viewed

View All