"Russische Ausstellung," El
Lissitsky, 1929, $52,900.
NEW YORK CITY -- A very rare vintage poster designed by Russian
artist and promoter of the avant-garde El Lissitsky for a Russian
exhibition in1929 at the Kunstgewerbe Museum in Zurich, achieved
a record price of $52,900 at Swann Galleries' fourth annual
Modernist Poster auction on May 5.
The auction also featured a previously unrecorded variant poster
by Werner Graul for the pioneering German film Metropolis,
Berlin, 1926, which realized $41,400. This version, bearing
Graul's widely recognized image of Maria, the film's central
character, advertises the first release of the film in January
1927 at Berlin's Ufa-Pavillon am Nollendorf, following the world
premiere at the Ufa-Palast am Zoo.
Two striking French Art Deco images by A.M. Cassandre were also
among the top lots. His minimal and sophisticated advertisement
for a refreshing aperitif, Vera Mint, Paris, 1930, sold for
$25,300, and his strong, spare advertisement for Spidoléine motor
oil, Paris, 1932, attained a record $43,700.
Nicholas Lowry, poster specialist, said, "Our fourth Modernist
Poster auction was our strongest to date in this field. Four
posters brought more than $25,000, a clear indication that the
market is thriving for museum-quality graphic design, and that
the downturn in the economy is not affecting the high end of the
poster market. Exceptional images from the 1960s and 1970s also
did well, in a more modest price range, a sign that this niche in
the poster market is constantly growing and maturing."
"Rails to Sales/Subway Posters," Otis Shepard, circa 1947,
$5,060.
Other Art Deco highlights included a pair of maquettes by Alexey
Brodovitch for the Paris restaurant Prunier, 1924, $13,800; Paul
Colin's poster for jazz pianist André Renaud, Paris, 1929, which
sold for $19,550; Charles Loupot's "Stop-Fire," Paris, 1930,
advertising a compact fire extinguisher, $5,520; and Pierre
Fix-Masseau's classic railroad advertisement, "Exactitude,"
Paris, 1932, $11,500.
Not all the posters were European. The American examples included
two commissioned by the New York Subway Association to promote
postwar advertising in the subways. Eric Nitsche's "Say It Fast
... Often ... In Color / Subway Posters," 1947, sold for $3,450;
and Otis Shepard's "Rails to Sales / Subway Posters," circa 1947,
$5,060.
Among relatively recent works, Roy Lichtenstein's pop art version
of an Art Deco composition for the Fourth New York Film Festival
at Lincoln Center, 1966, brought $2,185.
The sale closed with a selection of early works by the Japanese
designer Tadanori Yokoo. A La Maison de M.Civecawa, 1965, which
combines traditional Japanese motifs of the rising sun and the
great wave with images of the modern Japanese Bullet train and a
classical Western painting, reached $5,060; and Hangi Daitokan,
1970, which retools the latter composition to advertise a book by
Tatsumi Hijikata, and includes Chinese calligraphy drawn by the
author, Mishima, brought $3,220.
All prices include buyer's premium.
