Graphic design experienced a radical renewal between the World Wars, when Constructivism, the New Typography, and photography dominated the visual language of the avant-garde. The exhibition Avant-Garde—Graphic Design on the Rise demonstrates that works by artists such as El Lissitzky and Jan Tschichold continue to inspire people today.
Avant-garde applied art in the interwar period was dominated by graphic design, photography, and typography. Progressive art movements left an indelible mark on the emerging modern mass media. Graphic design became a mirror of sociopolitical utopias and formal innovation. This called for new ways of seeing!
Around one hundred years later, the exhibition looks back on this phase of new beginnings. Posters by the Russian Constructivists El Lissitzky and Valentina Kulagina are shown alongside Art Deco works by Adolphe Mouron Cassandre. Jan Tschichold’s clean typography meets up with photographic experiments by Lucia Moholy and Binia Bill. They all share a new, rational approach to design that supplanted the subjective artistic styles and painterly narratives of former times with a reduced use of color and form.
In addition to many posters, collages, and magazines, the exhibition also shows parallel modernization trends in architecture, product design, theater, and film. The spirit of this short but intense era comes to life—a spirit that would continue to reverberate after the Second World War and which still inspires graphic design today.
