(1890-1954)
A highly influential American poster artist and graphic designer who also designed textiles and carpets, Kauffer was an important force in defining the visual language of Modernism in Britain, where he lived from 1914 to 1940. He was commissioned by a wide range of important clients ranging from public bodies such as London Transport and leading companies such as Shell and BP to smaller, aesthetically progressive companies such as Cresta Silks, which also commissioned other progressive designers such as Wells Coates for its shop and factory designs and Paul Nash for textiles. Kauffer also published his own book, The Art of the Poster, in 1924. After training in painting at evening classes at the Mark Hopkins Institute in San Francisco (1910-12) and the Art Institute, Chicago (1912), Kauffer travelled to Paris to continue his studies at the Académie Moderne. On the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 he moved to London, where he continued to experience the work of the avant-garde, particularly Cubism, Futurism, and its British counterpart, Vorticism, and was a founder of Group X with Wyndham Lewis and others. In 1915 he gained his first poster commission for the London Underground, which became one of the most important commissioning bodies for contemporary poster design in Britain. Kauffer's visual vocabulary drew on his knowledge of contemporary art forms, as in his 1919 Soaring to Success poster for the Daily Herald in which the abstracted forms of the flying birds clearly betrayed his early Vorticist leanings. In addition to frequent poster work for London Transport (for whom he produced over 140 posters) he also worked for Francis Meynell's high-quality Nonesuch Press from the early 1920s, contributing book jackets and illustrations alongside other distinguished individuals such as book artist Reynold Stone, German typographer Rudolf Koch, and illustrator Georg Grosz. His interest in such work was consolidated through his appointment as art director to the publishers Lund Humphries in 1930. He also designed rugs with his partner (later wife) Marion Dorn, also American born and resident in London from 1923 to 1940. Both showed designs of Wilton Rugs in 1929 although he went on to absorb the influence of Surrealism in the biomorphic nature of a number of later designs. Both she and Kauffer were among the many designers commissioned to work on the Orient Line's new ship, the Orion, in 1935. The Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York, by awarding him a one-man show in 1937, acknowledged his importance as a major force in poster design. He also made use of techniques such as photomontage, airbrushing, and photomurals. His standing in Britain was also high since, although he was a foreign citizen, the Royal Society of Arts in London had made Kauffer an Honorary Designer for Industry in 1936. In 1940 Kauffer returned to the USA, designing posters for the US Treasury and, in 1941, catalogue covers for the MOMA exhibitions Organic Design in Home Furnishings and Britain at War. After the end of the Second World War he worked for a number of key clients including American Airlines (1946-53).
