Avant-Garde – Graphic Design on the Verge of a Breakthrough

Between the world wars, graphic design underwent a radical transformation: Constructivism, New Typography, and photography defined the visual language of this avant-garde movement.

Graphic art, photography, and typography shaped the applied avant-garde of the interwar period. The influence of progressive art movements is evident in the emerging modern mass media. Graphic design became a reflection of sociopolitical utopias and formal innovation. A new way of seeing was demanded!

About a century later, the exhibition looks back on this era of new beginnings. Posters of Russian Constructivism by El Lissitzky and Valentina Kulagina are displayed alongside Art Deco works by Adolphe Mouron Cassandre. Jan Tschichold’s clean typography meets the photographic experiments of Lucia Moholy and Binia Bill. They are all united by a new, rational approach to design that replaces the previous, subjective-artistic styles and painterly narratives with a reduced palette of colors and forms.

In addition to numerous posters, collages, and magazines, the exhibition also highlights parallel trends toward modernization in architecture, product design, theater, and film. In this way, it captures the spirit of this brief, intense era—one that continued to exert an influence after World War II and continues to inspire graphic design to this day.


Note: This text was translated by machine translation software and not by a human translator. It may contain translation errors.

Regular: CHF 15.00
Reduced: CHF 10.00
Free admission for everyone every Thursday starting at 5:00 p.m.
Free for those under 20

https://museum-gestaltung.ch/de/ausstellung/avantgarde-grafikdesign-im-aufbruch