Julius Klinger

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Julius Klinger (born May 22, 1876 in Dornbach near Vienna , † 1942 in Minsk ) was an Austrian painter of Jewish descent, draftsman , illustrator , commercial artist , typographer and writer . Klinger studied at the Technological Trade Museum in Vienna.

First work in Vienna and Munich

Klinger got his first job in 1895 at the Viennese fashion magazine Wiener Mode . Here he met his future teacher Koloman Moser and was recommended by him to the Meggendorfer Blätter . In 1896 he moved to Munich and from 1897 to 1902 also worked for the weekly newspaper Jugend .

The Berlin time

Klinger 1908

In 1897 he moved to Berlin, where he worked as a commercial artist and book illustrator until 1915.

One of his book art works is the book Die Kunst im Leben des Kinds , published in 1904 . A word to defend against “Struwwelpeter” and to reform the jumping jack, published by the Böse Buben , which he brought out in the publishing house Harmonie with texts by Rudolf Bernauer ; ten color litographs in poster style and numerous black and white drawings congenially illustrate Bernauer's cabaret criticism of the times . In 1907, the same publisher and in coproduction with the same author published a volume entitled Songs of an Evil Boy . It was here that Klinger demonstrated his perfect black and white technique for the first time, with which he primarily dealt with erotic topics from literature (e.g. Salome ). The art magazine German Art and Decoration became aware of him in the same year and dedicated an article to him in the January 1908 issue that characterizes him in detail. The article is accompanied by seven black and white lithographs. Klinger's stylistic affinity with artists such as Aubrey Beardsley , Gustav Klimt and Constantin Somoff is rightly pointed out. Klinger reached an absolute climax in the history of Art Nouveau book illustration in 1909 with a private print in folio format containing a German translation of the pornographic play Sodom , which is ascribed to the Earl of Rochester . The title and the 13 black and white plates of the book are followed by two color lithographs. In contrast to the somewhat simple, faecal-erotic content of the piece, Klinger draws blatantly pornographic images, but fills them with original wit and great ingenuity. The print was published in 350 copies as "Privatdruck Leipzig 1909" without specifying a publisher or printer - with the assurance "never to organize or have a reprint organized."

Together with the Hollerbaum und Schmidt printing company , Klinger developed a new type of functional poster design and soon became internationally known. In 1912 he designed the poster for the Flugtag Rund um Berlin in Johannisthal . In Berlin he also worked for Das kleine Witzblatt , Die Lustige Blätter and Das Narrenschiff .

In 1911 he was appointed as a teacher at the specialist workshop for poster art at the Reimann School , which had been founded by Albert Reimann in 1902, and taught there until the end of 1914.In 1913 he became the artistic director of the Higher Technical School for Decorative Art , which was affiliated with the Reimann School. Since 1912 he was a member of the German Werkbund . In 1913 he founded the Association of Artistic Shop Window Decorators with the architect Ernst Friedmann . Since 1914 he was an honorary member of the Verein der Posterfreunde eV

Lucian Zabel was one of Klinger's students in Berlin .

Return to Vienna

After the war he opened a studio for commercial graphics in Vienna's Schellinggasse, where he also held courses in modern commercial graphics. On June 19, 1919, he left the Association of Poster Friends. In 1923, together with the Viennese group he co-founded , the poster art book was published in Vienna , which was also published in the USA. Klinger occasionally wrote under the pseudonym “Dr. Wiles-Worris ”, to be understood aloud as“ because it's woah is ”.

To the "gods" of the Vienna Group , which also includes Rolf Frey , Wilhelm Wilrab and Hermann Kosel included, were Charles Martin , Karl Kraus and Charlie Chaplin chosen - the Paris Charles Martin because he was " influenced by its tender-hearted and foremost the American fashion world " , Kraus, " because he wrote down the truth about our days for the next generations for eternity ", and " Chaplin, because from Hollywood he made even the serious Chinese laugh ".

With Ernst Ludwig Franke , Klinger designed one of the most modern posters for the eighth Austrian war loan in 1918. An important assignment, as the war went on, the advertising efforts for the sale of the bonds increased. He also designs trademarks, letterheads, advertisements, book illustrations and fonts in Vienna. His works from this period are particularly simple and geometrically clear.

Klinger worked for the renowned book and art publisher Gerlach & Wiedling , as did Carl Otto Czeschka , Carl Moser , Heinrich Lefler , Gustav Klimt and Franz von Stuck, among others .

Klinger designed the shop sign in the Seilergasse - the distinctive, oversized "book worm" - and several publisher's signets for the then very well-known, later "Aryanized" , publishing, assortment and commission bookstore Moritz Perles .

Advertising campaign for the Tabu company

Advertising (1919)

From 1918 onwards, Klinger designed a major advertising campaign for the Tabu company , it was aimed at a cigarette paper that was advertised across the board in Vienna in 1918/19. Klinger designed an advertising line that ranged from small-format advertisements in the daily newspaper to large-format advertising on fire walls and also used construction fences and winter-proof fountain cladding as advertising space.

Some motifs from the campaign posters have been preserved, e. For example, a cityscape with a historic town center, which is surmounted by a skyscraper with the inscription "Tabu", or a trowel marked with the inscription "Tabu".

Trip to the USA

After Klinger was invited in December 1928 by General Motors and Mac Manus Inc. on a trip to the USA, which had been idealized by graphic designers and advertising professionals, a certain disillusionment ensued - they could only serve as a model if they were skeptical and thoroughly reflected.

From 1929 to 1931, he taught at the Magdeburg School of Applied Arts and Crafts .

Persecution by National Socialism

Street sign of the Klingerstrasse in Vienna-Liesing

Klinger was persecuted by the National Socialists because of his Jewish descent . On June 2, 1942, according to the police register , he was " deregistered " to Minsk , ie deported. He probably died there that same year under unknown circumstances.

The artist designed the last known poster in 1938 for the Ankerbrot factory . These were "Aryanized" in 1938, and after 1945 they were returned to the previous owners.

In 1982 Klingerstraße in Vienna- Liesing was named after him.

Art historical appreciation

Before the First World War, Klinger was one of the most influential artists in German poster creation and after 1916 one of the most important innovators in Austrian poster art. Largely forgotten today, his poster motifs such as the men looking up at the sky, which refer to the Johannisthaler Flugwoche, or the five cactus figures that advertise the Hollerbaum and Schmidt printing company, were well known at the time.

In the field of tension between the sober, objective view of the art of advertising according to Lucian Bernhard and the illustrative figure poster that advertises with a counterpart that appeals to the customer, as can be found at Ludwig Hohlwein , Julius Klinger found a very independent language. Although he followed the clear advertising intent and the simple surface style of Bernhard, he knew how to give the posters the punch of a joke. Inventiveness, elegance, esprit with artistic discipline and pointed expressiveness are characteristic of Klinger's talent. Simple dignity, honesty of the graphic surface and the radical economy of the means used give his posters a timeless modernity and quickly made him one of the most popular Berlin poster artists. Particularly noteworthy are his first work for the Manoli cigarette factory in Berlin. In 1911, before Lucian Bernhard, Hans Rudi Erdt and Ernst Deutsch, he was the graphic designer who brought the first impulses from the Deutscher Werkbund to Manoli.

As a functionalist , Klinger, who was a private student of Kolo Moser and who with Adolf Loos opposed “ any form that is not a thought ”, brought his philosophy against pure decoration as a teacher among those interested in the new medium.

Klinger also called for the modernization of the arts - the painter should define himself as a “ servant of photomechanical reproduction ”, and he saw skyscrapers, ocean liners and the zeppelin as the subject of pure art of his time.

The poster was a young art form at the beginning of the nineteenth century which, unlike other disciplines, could not look back on any real tradition. Klinger therefore considered it necessary that the artists themselves actively participate in the art theoretical discourse. He did this through numerous lectures and publications, such as the announcements of the Association for Poster Friends , in which he calls for a clear separation between poster and painting: “ There can and must not be any relationships between an easel picture and a poster. “He also described painting as a“ colored degeneration of drawing ”and thus shows as a pioneer how far this form of art had brought him.

With Poster Art in Vienna, the sample book for factual graphics , Klinger and his like-minded comrades introduced themselves primarily to the American and English markets. Horst Herbert Kossatz writes in Ornamental Poster Art : “ Klinger and his artist friends created advertising symbols instead of poster paintings ... their view prevailed, the Art Nouveau poster artist became the advertising specialist. "

Occasionally Klinger polemicized against some artistic events. In 1928 he wrote about a ladies' room designed by the architects Frank and Walch, the “ essence for which the two poets of space created this interior ” could only be “ Funsen! "And the ten schilling note designed by Berthold Löffler is a" discolored bastard "- at best a forger " abandoned by all graces "would want to copy it.

The collection of poster and advertising art in the art library of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin - Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation has over 180 posters, commercial graphic works, numerous drawings and designs from the years 1896 to 1933.

The Austrian National Library lists 22 posters by Klinger .

literature

  • HK Frenzel: Julius Klinger . In: Nutzgraphik, Vol. 4, 1927, Issue 5, pp. 1–35 ( digital copy )
  • Anita Kühnel: Julius Klinger. Photo booklet of the National Museums in Berlin. Gebr. Mann, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-7861-1752-7 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ German Art and Decoration , January 1908, pp. 272–278.
  2. ↑ Swantje Kuhfuss-Wickenheiser: The Reimann School in Berlin and London 1902-1943. A Jewish company for international art and design training up to its destruction by the Hitler regime. Aachen 2009, ISBN 978-3-86858-475-2 , p. 254 f.
  3. ^ M. Puhle: School of Applied Arts and Crafts Magdeburg 1793 - 1963. Magdeburg 1993, pp. 39, 55.

Web links

Commons : Julius Klinger  - collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Klinger, Julius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian painter and graphic artist
DATE OF BIRTH May 22, 1876
PLACE OF BIRTH Dornbach
DATE OF DEATH after June 2, 1942
Place of death Minsk