Lot 8: POSTER: KARL SCHULPIG (1884-1948) W. HOFFMANN PIANOS. 1912. 27x18 inches. Adolf Simmel, Berlin.

KARL SCHULPIG (1884-1948) W. HOFFMANN PIANOS. 1912.
27 5/8x18 3/4 inches. Adolf Simmel, Berlin.
Condition A-: trimmed margins; minor repaired tear in margins.
A painter and a poster designer, Schulpig was very active in Berlin. In 1905, when Lucian Bernhard invented the Object Poster, designing a seminal image for Priester Matches, he probably did not guess how much his new style would influence an entire generation of poster artists. Bernhard's poster for Steinway & Sons, in 1910 (see Swann Art Nouveau Poster Auction #2099, lot 103), was a pure manifestation of this new style; a flat representation of the object, huge lettering and a monochromatic background. Schulpig's cleanly-executed image can certainly be considered a "tribute" to Bernhard, neatly recreating the feeling of the poster, albeit with slightly more detail to the piano and more text. Schulpig was not the only artist to find "inspiration" in Bernhard's piano imagery, as Julius Gipkens borrowed liberally from the style for his poster for Pianos Steck (see DFP III 1044). Not in DFP, Muller-Brockman, 131

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