The Austrian-born Herbert Bayer is widely acknowledged as one of the most influential graphic artists of his time, but his extensive achievements span a spectrum of disciplines. The artistic polymath made his mark as a photographer and master of photomontage, a typography creator, magazine art director, advertising guru, architect and more.
As a student in the early 1920s at the Bauhaus — the revolutionary German art and design school in Weimar that sought to integrate art and design into daily life — Bayer studied under Russian-born Wassily Kandisnsky, who became his mentor, and was greatly influenced by Kandinsky’s book Concerning the Spiritual in Art, heartily embracing its premise that the arts can and should serve society.
Bayer left the Bauhaus in 1923 to tour Italy with a friend, then rejoined two years later, hired to teach advertising, design and typography at the school’s new home, in Dessau. There, he designed catalogues, featuring photography and machine-based printing, that promoted Bauhaus-made “goods for the home,” including handmade furniture, wallpaper and housewares. And he created a new “universal” alphabet: a streamlined sans serif restricted to lower-case letters that became the Bauhaus’s signature font.
Bayer quit teaching at the Bauhaus along with founder Walter Gropius and fellow teachers Marcel Breuer and László Maholy-Nagy when the school’s finances grew strained. He became the art director of German Vogue, moving on, when the magazine closed during the Depression, to the ad agency Dorland International, where he created the advertisements for clothing, textiles, toothpaste and nose drops on view. He also did magazine covers and outdoor billboards and masterminded the design of several important international exhibitions, including the German section of the 1930 Exposition de la Société des artistes décorateurs in Paris.
By 1938, Bayer had become dismayed by the political situation in Germany, and at the invitation of Gropius — who was then chair of the architecture department at Harvard, having fled the Nazi regime in 1934 — he left for the United States. Gropius had been asked to curate an exhibition on the Bauhaus for the Museum of Modern Art, but he didn’t have time and so asked Bayer to help. Bayer ultimately did it all, including gathering material in Germany, creating the exhibition plan and overseeing the catalogue. The show traveled throughout the U.S., and Bayer’s stateside career took off.
In the early 1940s, Bayer served as chief art director at Wanamaker’s and worked in advertising and package design at J. Walter Thompson. In 1945, he began a long stint working full-time at the Container Corporation of America (CCA). He created CCA’s long-running series “Great Ideas of Western Man,” which aimed to enlighten the public through inspiring quotes. Additionally, Bayer designed sculptures, wall murals, furniture, earth art and buildings for the Aspen Institute between 1946 and 1975.
Bayer’s work demonstrates how one man, and one school, changed the evolution of contemporary graphics in America over a 40-year period.
Find original Herbert Bayer prints and paintings on 1stDibs.
Original Vintage Art Exhibition Poster Bauhaus Chicago Illinois Herbert Bayer
By Herbert Bayer
Located in London, GB
Original vintage exhibition poster for 50 Years Bauhaus held from 25 August to 26 September 1969 held at the S.R. Crown Hall Illinois Institute of Technolog...
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Original Vintage Advertising Poster Bauhaus Exhibition Royal Academy Of Arts
By Herbert Bayer
Located in London, GB
Original vintage advertising poster for 50 Years Bauhaus German Exhibition held from 21 September to 27 October 1968 at the Royal Academy of Arts Piccadilly London W1 featuring minim...
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1968 Bauhaus, Herbert Bayer Original Vintage Poster
By Herbert Bayer
Located in Winchester, GB
Austrian-American designer Herbert Bayer was one of Bauhaus' most influential students & teachers. Founded by Walter Gropius in 1919, the German art school ran for only 14 years howe...
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$440Sale Price|20% Off
H 22.25 in W 16.63 in D 0.07 in
Original Italian Art Exhibition Poster - Ferruccio Garopesani
Located in Miami, FL
Original Italian art exhibition poster by painter and designer Ferruccio Garopesani. Presented in 1975 at the Galleria International d'Arte - Diorena - Ascona, Italy. A native of ...
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1954 Ford, Herbert Leupin Original Vintage Poster
By Herbert Leupin
Located in Winchester, GB
Beautiful poster printed in lithography with artwork from Swiss graphic designer & artist Herbert Leupin created for Ford. Ford Motor Company was founded by Henry Ford in 1903 and co...
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LEVI'S Original Vintage Advertising Poster 1971
Located in Chicago, IL
LEVI'S Authentic original vintage advertising poster Artist: Ida Van Bladel Condition: A/A- * Dimensions: 22 x 32.9 in. / 55.9 x 83.5 cm. Circa: 1971 Linen Backed There are a few ti...
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$1,600
H 12 in W 63 in D 0.02 in
The 46th Annual Exhibition of Advertising and Editorial Art and Design Poster
By Milton Glaser
Located in New York, NY
First edition, 4-color offset printed poster of this influential and now iconic Psychedelic-era image, commissioned as a call for entries for the 46th annual Exhibition of Advertising and Editorial Art and Design. Designed by Tom Daly, who also did the body painting with theatrical greasepaint and water-soluble acrylics on model Wandy Embry, and photographed by Kenneth Harris...
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$960Sale Price|20% Off
H 28.75 in W 20.28 in D 0.4 in
Original Vintage Fine Art Exhibition Poster MODIGLIANI DEPUIS BONNARD, 1957
By Amedeo Modigliani
Located in Melbourne, Victoria
Original vintage Fine art exhibition poster MODIGLIANI DEPUIS BONNARD, 1957 This is an original vintage poster from 1957 Artist Modi...
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$1,400
H 40.5 in W 30 in D 0.1 in
CHICAGO AMERICAN AIRLINES Original Vintage Airline Travel Tourism MCM Poster
Located in Chicago, IL
CHICAGO - AMERICAN AIRLINES Authentic original vintage airline travel poster Artist: Fred Conway Condition: A- Dimensions: 30 x 40.5 in. / 76.2 x 102.9 cm. Circa: 1960s Linen Backed ...
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$3,110
H 80.32 in W 76.38 in D 0 in
Original Vintage Advertising Poster, Boris Bucan Televizija Zagreb
By Boris Bucan
Located in Melbourne, Victoria
Boris Bucan was an internationally renowned graphic designer from Croatia. His graphic work has been widely exhibited all over the world. This is an original vintage poster which is...
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$7,424
H 33.86 in W 33.86 in D 0.04 in
Original Vintage Sport Poster Mexico Olympic Games 1968 Lance Wyman
By Lance Wyman
Located in London, GB
Original vintage sport poster for 1968 Mexico Olympic Games officially known as the Games of the XIX Olympiad held from 12-27 October 1968, featuring the iconic eye-catching event lo...
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Original Vintage Rum Rhumprat Old Jack Advertising Poster
Located in Barcelona, ES
"The Old Jack Old Rum Rhumprat estilo Jamaica", Bonaparte, Reclamos Vilaró, Barcelona Original Rum advertising poster, Spain, 1920s Rhumprat- The Old J...
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Original Fritz Scholder 'Art '78" Exhibition Silkscreen Poster
By Fritz Scholder
Located in Sheridan, CO
Original Fritz Scholder 'Art '78" Exhibition Silkscreen Poster. Original vintage Fritz Scholder 'Art '78" Exhibition silkscreen poster from exhibition at the D.C. Armory, May 3-8, 1978. Artist: Fritz Scholder, Native American (1937–2005). Date: 1978 Screenprint Poster Dimensions 32 x 30 in. (81.28 x 76.2 cm) Printed by " Fritz Scholder, 1978 Transworld Art Corp., New York. Original Serigraph printed at Fine Creations, New York" Acquired at an auction of Fine Art from an East Coast Educational Institution in 2025. About the Artist Born in 1937 in Breckenridge, Minnesota, Fritz Scholder knew what he must do at an early age. As a high school student at Pierre, South Dakota, his teacher was Oscar Howe, a noted Sioux artist. In the summer of 1955, Scholder attended the Mid-West Art and Music Camp at the University of Kansas. He was voted Best Boy Artist and President of the Art Camp. He studied with Robert B. Green at Lawrence. In 1956, Scholder graduated from Ashland High School in Wisconsin and took his freshman year at Wisconsin State University in Superior, where he studied with Arthur Kruk, James Grittner and Michael Gorski. In 1957, Scholder moved with his family to Sacramento, California where he studied with Wayne Thiebaud. Thiebaud invited Scholder to join him, along with Greg Kondos and Peter Vandenberg in creating a cooperative gallery in Sacramento. Scholder’s first show received an exceptional review. Scholder’s next one man exhibition was at the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento. His work was being shown throughout the region, including the Palace of Legion of Honor in San Francisco. Upon graduation, from Sacramento State University, where he studied with Tarmo Pasto and Raymond Witt, Scholder was invited to participate in the Rockefeller Indian Art Project at the University of Arizona in 1961. Scholder is one-quarter Luseino, a California Mission tribe. He met Cherokee designer, Lloyd Kiva...
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$1,214
H 24.41 in W 18.51 in D 0.04 in
Original Vintage Winter Sports Poster 1968 NCAA Ski Championships Colorado
Located in London, GB
Original vintage sports poster promoting the 1968 NCAA Ski Championships held from 21-23 March at the Steamboat Springs ski resort in Colorado, hosted by Denver University with the C...
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$20,000
H 61.82 in W 94.49 in D 0.2 in
Original Vintage Advertising Poster, PERRIER by Andy Warhol c. 1983
By Andy Warhol
Located in Melbourne, Victoria
During the beginning of the 1980’s, Warhol began accepting commissions from a range of manufacturers and businesses; this screen print was an experimental design for French mineral w...
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Framed Vintage Bauhaus 50th Anniversary by Herbert Bayer
By Herbert Bayer, Bauhaus
Located in Brooklyn, NY
Framed vintage Bauhaus poster. Designed by artist Herbert Bayer to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the seminal art and design schoo...
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