recent inventions of the automobile and the camera, along with the good old-
fashioned bicycle, and in the cultural sphere, there are posters for important
German, Austrian, Hungarian and Czech fine and decorative art exhibitions; books,
bookstores and newspapers; architectural exhibitions and poster exhibitions.
It comes as no surprise that Austrian posters constitute a large part of the
collection. They emphatically show that there is much more to Austrian graphic
design than the posters for the Vienna Secession and the Wiener Werkstatte. It is
now possible to see the contribution by rarely seen Austrian artists such as Josef-
Maria Auchenthaler, Adolf Karpellus, Hermann Kosel, Theo Matejko, Hans
Neumann, Emil Ranzenhofer, Bernd Steiner and Victor Theodore Slama with the
realization that like Germany, France and Italy, the Austrian contribution to the
history of the poster is significant.
Yet it is the posters from Julius Paul’s native Hungary which will most excite the
poster aficionado, scholar and collector. A strong and varied graphic style
permeates these eye-catching posters ranging from caricature and humor to the
expressionistic and bold. Many of these are by Mihaly Biro, rapidly becoming
recognized as a giant of the early-20th century poster. Also represented is the
well-known Marcel Vertes, who emigrated to America to become a celebrated
costume designer in Hollywood; Geza Ferago, whose relatively few colorful and
evocative posters are sought after here and in Hungary, and the lively nightlife
posters of Lipot Satori.
The Julius Paul Collection is actually the first of two recently restituted poster
collections that have garnered tremendous international attention. These
collections are comparable in size and value. But to the eyes of those who have
seen both, the Julius Paul collection is by far the better preserved one.
From 1939 until 2008 the collection resided in the collection of the renowned
Albertina Museum in Vienna, where the posters were stored under the highest
standards of museum conservation. And while most of the posters bear the
Albertina’s collection stamp and a pencil-written inventory number, they were
virtually untouched and treated with the same care and deference as by their
original owner. With few exceptions, the posters never even saw the light of day.
These were not the spoils of war looted at gun point, these were treasured items
that formed half of the great museum’s graphic art collection.
For serious poster collectors and fans of historical graphic design, discovering new
images is always something exciting. To come across hundreds of superb, scarcely
(if ever) seen images all in one place is wonderful, and to find all of these images
in exceptional condition, carefully folded and preserved from the ravages of time
and use is really a once in a life time event. This auction of the Julius Paul collection
of posters is one of these rare events.
