Edward McKnight Kauffer

{{Short description|American artist and graphic designer (1890–1954)}}

{{Infobox artist

| image = File:Raymond McIntyre - Edward McKnight Kauffer - Google Art Project.jpg

| image_size =

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| caption = Portrait of Edward McKnight Kauffer by Raymond McIntyre, circa 1915

| birth_name = Edward Leland Kauffer

| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1890|12|14}}

| birth_place = Great Falls, Montana, US

| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1954|10|22|1890|12|14}}

| death_place = New York City, US

| spouse = Grace Ehrlich
Marion Dorn

| field = {{ubl|graphic design|poster art}}

| training =

| movement = {{ubl|Group X|Cumberland Market Group}}

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File:OCIAA-Poster-Luchamos.jpg, circa 1941]]

Edward McKnight Kauffer (14 December 1890 – 22 October 1954){{r|grove}} was an American artist and graphic designer who lived for much of his life in the United Kingdom. He worked mainly in poster art, but was also active as a painter, book illustrator and theatre designer.{{r|grove|comp}}

Early life and education

File:Portrait of E. McKnight Kauffer, London LCCN2004663115.jpg ]]

Edward Leland Kauffer was born on 14 December 1890, in Great Falls, Montana.{{cite web |title=Edward McKnight Kauffer |url=http://collection.cooperhewitt.org/people/18041923/ |work=Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2022-01-27 |date=September 10, 2021}} By 1910 he had moved to San Francisco working as a bookseller and studying art at the California School of Design from 1910 to 1912.{{r|dm}} At around this time Professor Joseph McKnight of the University of Utah became aware of Kauffer's work, sponsored him and paid to send him to Paris for further study. In gratitude Kauffer took his sponsor's name as a middle name.{{cite book|title=Design of the 20th Century|first1=Charlotte|last1=Fiell|first2=Peter|last2=Fiell|publisher=Taschen|location=Köln|edition=25th anniversary|year=2005|pages=377|isbn=9783822840788|oclc=809539744}}

Career

On his way to Paris, Kauffer stopped in Chicago for six months in 1912/1913 and studied at the Art Institute of Chicago. While there he witnessed the Armory Show, one of the first major exhibitions to introduce the styles of modernism to American viewers. This likely had a major impact on Kauffer, who would work in many of the same styles throughout his career. He arrived in Paris in 1913 and studied at the Académie Moderne until 1914.

At the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, he moved from Paris to London with his new wife, American pianist Grace (née Ehrlich).{{r|mcbc}}{{Cite ODNB |title=Kauffer, Edward McKnight (1890–1954), artist and graphic designer |url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-38951 |access-date=2022-12-21 |year=2004 |language=en |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/38951}}{{Cite web |last=grahamtwemlow |date=2021-10-20 |title=McKnight Kauffer Travels Abroad |url=https://www.grahamtwemlow.blog/post/mcknight-kauffer-musings-2 |access-date=2022-12-21 |website=grahamtwemlow |language=en}} Their daughter, Ann (6 October 1920 - 1996){{Cite web |title=Ann McKnight Kauffer – AntikBar – Original Vintage Posters |url=https://antikbarposters.wordpress.com/tag/ann-mcknight-kauffer/ |access-date=2022-12-21 |website=AntikBar - Original Vintage Posters |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=108 *Typed: February 9, 1939. - Free Online Library |url=https://www.thefreelibrary.com/108+*Typed:+February+9,+1939-a0248264246 |access-date=2022-12-21 |website=www.thefreelibrary.com}} would join the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force in the Second World War and work in photo intelligence alongside Constance Babington Smith, Eve Holiday, and Sarah Oliver, (Winston Churchill's daughter).{{Citation |last=Ford |first=Lily |title=Smith, Constance Babington (1912–2000), photographic interpreter and author |date=2019-08-08 |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-74536 |work=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.74536 |isbn=978-0-19-861412-8 |access-date=2022-12-21|url-access=subscription }}

On a visit to Paris in 1923, he met the American textile designer Marion Dorn (1896–1964). He left his wife and daughter and subsequently lived with her in London from late 1923.{{Cite web|url = https://www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-38548|title = Dorn, Marion V.|date = October 2008|access-date = 22 October 2014|website = Oxford Dictionary of National Biography|publisher = Oxford University Press|last = Schoeser|first = Mary}}

File:EDWARD McKNIGHT KAUFFER 1890-1954 MARION DORN 1896-1964 Designers lived here in flats 139 141.jpg, Chelsea, London SW3 5RY, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.]]

Kauffer remained in London for most of his career. He was briefly associated with Robert Bevan's Cumberland Market Group and had a one-man show at the Omega Workshops.Shone, Richard. (1999) The Art of Bloomsbury: Roger Fry, Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant. Princeton: Princeton University Press, pp. 137-138. {{ISBN|0691049939}} In Brighton on the south coast, he designed a "novel" mural for the lobby of Embassy Court, a Modernist block of flats designed by Wells Coates in 1935. The mural consisted of "monochrome photographs ... printed directly on to a light-sensitive cellulose coating".{{cite book|last1=Antram|first=Nicholas|last2=Morrice|first2=Richard|title=Brighton and Hove|series=Pevsner Architectural Guides|publisher=Yale University Press|location=London|year=2008|isbn=978-0-300-12661-7|page=110}}

Kauffer may be best known for the 140 posters that he produced for London Underground, and later London Transport. The posters span many styles: many show abstract influences, including futurism, cubism, and vorticism; others evoke impressionist influences such as Japanese woodcuts.Edward Leland McKnight Kauffer A Dictionary of Modern Design. Oxford University Press, 2004, 2005. 6 August 2008.{{Cite web |url=http://www.ltmcollection.org/posters/artist/artist.html?IXartist=Edward+McKnight+Kauffer |title=Artist: Edward McKnight Kauffer - Poster and poster artwork collection, London Transport Museum |access-date=6 August 2008 |archive-date=16 October 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071016094640/http://www.ltmcollection.org/posters/artist/artist.html?IXartist=Edward+McKnight+Kauffer |url-status=dead }}

He created posters for Shell Oil, the Great Western Railway and other commercial clients, and also illustrated books and book covers. Later he also became interested in textiles,{{cite book|last1=Day|first1=Susan|title=Art deco and modernist carpets|date=2002|publisher=Thames & Hudson|location=London|isbn=0500510814|pages=157, 159, 161}} interior design and theatrical design.{{Cite web|url=http://www.ssplprints.com/image/79567/kauffer-e-mcknight-edward-mcknight-royal-windsor-gwr-poster-1935|title='Royal Windsor', GWR poster, 1935., Kauffer, E. McKnight (Edward McKnight)|website=SSPL Prints|language=en|access-date=2019-01-17}} He designed the cover of the Radio Times' 1926 and 1927 Christmas Numbers.{{cite journal |title=[cover] |journal=Radio Times |date=1927-12-27 |volume=17 |issue=221 |page=1 |url=https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/page/056bc2e567fe4228bcd53a41a2a3cd97}} In 1930 he created a series of airbrush illustrations for The World in 2030 by Lord Birkenhead.{{cite web |last1=Strike |first1=Karen |title=The World in 2030 AD – 9 Visions of The Future |url=https://flashbak.com/the-world-in-2030-ad-9-visions-of-the-future-456264/ |website=flashback.com |date=20 October 2022 |publisher=Flashbak |access-date=3 April 2023}}{{cite book |last1=Spiropoulou |first1=Angeliki |last2=Rabaté |first2=Jean-Michel |title=Historical Modernisms Time, History and Modernist Aesthetics |date=2021 |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |isbn=9781350202962 |page=154 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=esBEEAAAQBAJ&dq=edward+mcknight+kauffer+birkenhead&pg=PA154 |access-date=3 April 2023}}

In July 1940, at the beginning of the Second World War, he and Marion Dorn returned to New York City, where they married in 1950 but separated in 1953. In New York his commissions began with MOMA and he went on to produce war propaganda posters. In 1947, he was approached to do a series of posters for American Airlines, which became his primary client until his death.{{r|aiga}} In 1952, he designed what is perhaps his most famous work, the dust jacket art of Ralph Ellison's novel Invisible Man. He died two years later, in 1954.

Gallery

Poster, The North Downs, London Underground, 1915 (CH 18447297-2).jpg|Poster, The North Downs, for London Underground (1915)

Poster, Godstone, London Underground, 1915 (CH 18447275).jpg|Poster, Godstone, for London Underground (1915)

Poster, Variant of the Poster- Soaring to Success- The Early Bird, 1918 (CH 18447233-2).jpg|Variant of the poster Soaring to Success: The Early Bird, for the Daily Herald (1918)

Edward McKnight Kauffer - Winter Sale at Derry & Toms, 1919.jpg|Poster, Winter Sale at Derry & Toms (1919)

Poster, The Royal United Service Museum, for London Underground, 1921 (CH 18447459).jpg|Poster, The Royal United Service Museum, for London Underground (1921)

Poster, Museum of Practical Geology, for London Underground, 1921 (CH 18447411).jpg|Poster, Museum of Practical Geology, for London Underground (1921)

Poster, Victoria and Albert Musuem, for London Underground, 1921 (CH 18447435-2).jpg|Poster, Victoria and Albert Museum, for London Underground (1921)

Poster, The 'Rocket'-Museum of Science, 1922 (CH 18447503-2).jpg|Poster, The 'Rocket', for the Science Museum (1922)

Poster, London History at the London Museum, for London Underground, 1922 (CH 18447525-2).jpg|Poster, London History at the London Museum, for London Underground (1922)

Poster, Winter Sales, for London Underground, 1922 (CH 18447481).jpg|Poster, Winter Sales, for London Underground (1922)

The Lodger (1927 film poster).jpg|Poster for the film The Lodger (1927)

Libertad de cultos (Freedom of worship) - DPLA - fbe1627c3e2554dbfed84550ff91e8b1.jpg|Poster, Libertad de cultos (Freedom of Worship) (1942)

"For the Conquered - Steel^ Not Bread" - NARA - 513551.jpg|Poster, For the Conquered - Steel! Not Bread, for the Office for Emergency Management, between 1941 and 1945

Invisible Man (1952 1st ed jacket cover).jpg|Dust jacket for Invisible Man (1952)

References

{{Reflist|refs=

Steven Heller (1992). [http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/medalist-emcknightkauffer E. McKnight Kauffer]. American Institute of Graphic Arts. Accessed May 2017.

Hugh Brigstocke (editor) ([n.d.]). [http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/opr/t118/e1352 Kauffer, E. McKnight]. The Oxford Companion to Western Art. Oxford Art Online. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Accessed May 2017. {{subscription required}}.

[https://web.archive.org/web/20140705040401/http://designmuseum.org/design/page74546 Edward Mcknight Kauffer: Poster Artist and Graphic Designer (1890 – 1954)]. London: Design Museum. Archived 5 July 2014.

Mark Haworth-Booth ([n.d.]). [http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/grove/art/T046020 Kauffer, E. McKnight]. Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Accessed May 2017. {{subscription required}}.

Madeline Collins, Lisa Berman (2021). E. McKnight Kauffer: Works from the Merrill C. Berman Collection. Rye, New York: The Merrill C. Berman Collection

}}