Ben Uri Research Unit

Born: 1890 Great Falls, Montana, USA

Died: 1954 New York, USA

Year of Migration to the UK: 1914

Other name/s: E McKnight Kauffer, Edward Leland Kauffer

Biography

American painter and graphic designer, Edward McKnight Kauffer was born in 1890 in Great Falls, Montana, USA. He initially trained as a painter at the Mark Hopkins Institute in San Francisco and the Art Institute of Chicago (1910–12). His tutor, Joseph McKnight, paid for Kauffer to study in Europe, and in recognition of this, Kauffer thereafter adopted McKnight's surname as his own middle name, becoming known as Edward McKnight Kauffer. From 1913–14 he studied at the Academie Moderne in Paris, moving to Britain at the outbreak of the First World War.

During his first year in England, Kauffer became a member of The London Group, a society of progressive painters who were embracing modernism. He was also an active member of exhibiting societies, the Cumberland Market Group and the Friday Club. The former was a short-lived group of English painters who were opposed to decorative aspects of post-Impressionism and were dedicated to exploring the forms and colours in scenes of London daily life. Founded in 1905 by Vanessa Bell, The Friday Club provided the focus for artist members of the Bloomsbury Group, who met to talk about their work and ideas, to discuss what was happening in the wider art world, and to organise exhibitions. Kauffer was also a co-founders of the short-lived Group X. Formed in an attempt to revive Wyndham Lewis’s pre-war vorticist group, it provided a continuing focus for avant-garde art in Britain. The group held one exhibition at the Mansard Gallery at Heal's furniture store on Tottenham Court Road in 1920. The Observer commented that the show ‘cannot fail to raise a storm among the traditionalists, since it is composed of the most advanced manifestations of modern British art which has perhaps never before been presented in such compact strength. It is a display of tremendous energy and artistic independence […]’ (The Observer 1920, p. 9).

Kauffer was, however, best known for his graphic design work for British companies. Soaring to Success (1919, V&A) was based on a woodcut that Kauffer had created in 1916 and was one of his most famous designs. Advertising the launch of the Daily Herald, the Labour Party newspaper, it seemed to suggest the dawning of a new age. The poster design itself went through a number of variations and has since become one of the quintessential images associated with British modernism. Its geometric but dynamic abstraction of a flock of birds shows the influence of Vorticism, a movement with which Kauffer was closely associated. In 1924 Kauffer was included in the Exhibition of Posters at the Corporation Art Gallery, Brighton. The Times singled out his work, commenting that ‘[…] our leading poster artist is undoubtedly Mr. E. McKnight Kauffer. He is represented […] only by a small poster of ‘Heatfield’, but, though the colour scheme is not particularly pleasing, it has a quality, a depth, which makes most of the other work look a little thin. That is the great difficulty in poster art, to keep the work simple and empathetic and yet give it ‘body’ (The Times 1924, p. 9). Kauffer became one of the leading commercial designers of the 1920s, producing radical posters that introduced modernism to the public. His iconic poster, BP Ethyl Controls Horse-Power for British Petroleum (1933, V&A), used photomontage, dynamic rectangles and asymmetrical lettering to emphasise power and movement. Kauffer was introduced to Frank Pick of the Underground Group of companies via illustrator John Hassall and he subsequently produced many of London Underground’s most memorable poster images. Over his career, Kauffer would design over 140 different posters for London Transport, in addition to various commissions for blue chip firms such as Shell, British Petroleum and Eastman & Co. Kauffer’s posters incorporated elements of Futurism, Cubism, and Surrealism and helped companies understand the commercial benefits of avant-garde styles. Kauffer continued to exhibit in many group and solo exhibitions across the UK which were widely praised in the press. He also produced illustrations and book covers for novels and created set designs and textiles (also the speciality of his wife, artist Marion Dorn). In 1927 he devised the title sequence for Alfred Hitchcock's silent thriller The Lodger, while his theatre work included his ‘striking’ costume and stage designs for Ninette de Valois' ballet Checkmate at Sadler’s Wells (1937) (Haskell 1937, p. 95 ).

At the beginning of the Second World War Kauffer moved back to the USA but was unable to find the same foothold in the American advertising market as he had in Britain. Edward MicKnight Kauffer died on 22 October 1954 in New York City, USA. His paintings and posters are held in numerous UK public collections, including the London Transport Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. In 2011 London's: Estorick Collection held the exhibition Edward McKnight Kauffer: the Poster King.

Related books

Roberta Cremoncini and Christopher Adams eds., Edward McKnight Kauffer: the Poster King, exhibition catalogue (London: Estorick Collection, 2011)
Brian Webb and Peyton Skipwith, Edward McKnight Kauffer (Woodbridge: Antique Collectors' Club, 2007)
Mark Haworth-Booth, E. McKnight Kauffer: a Designer and his Public (London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 2005)
Mark Haworth-Booth, Edward McKnight Kauffer: Painter, Poster Artist, Graphic Designer Extraordinary (London: Shell Education Service, 1994)
Tara Collins, Edward McKnight Kauffer: an American Designer in England Between the Wars (MA Thesis, Queens College, 1987)
Stephen Bone, 'Posters for the Underground: Mcknight Kauffer's Art', The Manchester Guardian, 7 October 1955, p. 5
A.C.S., ‘McKnight Kauffer and Manchester: a Token Exhibit’, The Manchester Guardian, 17 November 1954, p. 6
'Obituary: Mr E. McKnight Kauffer', The Manchester Guardian, 29 September 1954, p. 2
Edward McKnight Kauffer, Posters by E. McKnight Kauffer (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1937)
''Checkmate': Ninette de Valois' Ballet in its McKnight Kauffer Setting and Dresses', The Bystander, Vol. 136, 15 December 1937, p. 410
Arnold L. Haskell, 'The Autumn Ballet Season', The Bystander, Vol. 136, 20 October 1937, p. 95
'Checkmate. The New Chess Ballet at Sadler's Wells', The Sketch, Vol. 180, 13 October 1937, p. 84
E. McKnight Kauffer, The Art of the Poster: its Origin, Evolution & Purpose (New York: Albert & Charles Boni, 1928)
'Brighton Art Gallery', The Times, 26 June 1924, p. 9
'Still Going Strong', The Graphic, Vol. 101, 17 April 1920, p. 616
'GROUP X', The Observer, 4 April 1920, p. 9
R. H. W., ‘Exhibitions of The Week’, The Athenaeum, 2 April 1920, pp. 454-454

Public collections

Related organisations

Academie Moderne (student)
Art Institute of Chicago (student)
Cumberland Market Group (member)
Friday Club (member)
The London Group (member)

Selected exhibitions

'Underground Modernist', exhibition, Cooper Hewitt, New York (2022)
Discovering Britain: the Shell Heritage Art Collection at Mottisfont, Romsey (2017)
The Poster King: Edward McKnight Kauffer, Estorick Collection, London (2011)
From Sickert to Gertler: Modern British Art from Boxted House, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh (2008)
Edwar McKnight Kauffer: Poster Art, 1915-1940, Victoria and Albert Museum, London (1973)
Memorial exhibition, Victoria and Albert Museum, London (1955)
Solo exhibition, Museum of Modern Art, New York (1937)
Exhibition of British Art in Industry, Royal Academy of Arts, London (1935)
Group Exhibition of Fine Printing, John & Edward Bumpus Ltd, London (1931)
Paintings by Edward McKnight Kauffer, Tooth's Gallery, London(1931)
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (1926)
Group exhibition of Applied Painting, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London (1926)
Exhibition of Original Posters Designed for the Empire Marketing Board, Royal Academy of Arts, London (1926)
Exhibition of Posters, Corporation Art Gallery, Brighton (1924)
Group X, Mansard Gallery, London (1920)

Ben Uri archive

Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Edward McKnight Kauffer]