Otto Baumberger Art

Hotel St. Gothard Zurich. 1917. Color lithograph, On linen. 50 x 36" Otto Baumberger’s first posters were created in 1911. However, his most productive period for posters was from the 1920s to the mid-1930s. He created about 230 posters in all, many of which he lithographed himself. An important representative of Swiss Expressionism...

Baumberger, Otto. PKZ 1923, Color lithograph, On Linen 50 1/2 x 35 1/2” Baumberger was one of the most prolific Swiss poster artists, with well over 200 designs to his credit. Beginning in 1917, he regularly worked for PKZ. This poster is not only the best he produced for the company but is also an icon in poster history. The tweed coat is rendered in near-photographic perfection to the point where you can practically feel the fabric. Baumberger took a totally new approach to advertising by ingeniously incorporating the poster's text into the image in the form of the label in the coat. With this poster Baumberger cemented his role as master of the "Object Poster," (a title he earned four years earlier with a classic image of a top hat), and began the trend of "New Objectivity" within the Swiss school of Graphic Design. A sensation from the day it was issued, this image remains compelling and proves to be one of the finest of the PKZ posters...