Die Münchner "Sechs" und das moderne künstlerische Plakat

The modern artistic placard is a child of the metropolis and of the radical socio-economic upheavals of the 19th century. Its principles and modes have their effect in the spheres of advertising and art and set the tone for the social discourse of the day. The central problem areas and themes of modern placard art are contained in the historical enterprise of “The Six”, a combination of artists’ association and agency created in Munich in 1913. Embedded in the space between art and commerce, its history illustrates both the particular status of the placard and the fundamental conflict between autonomous design and design for a specific purpose. This richly-illustrated publication offers the first comprehensive introduction to the Munich “Six”. The genre-crossing nature of the modern artistic placard and the historical span of the group’s activities from the pre-war period into the Weimar Republic corresponds to a methodology that connects visual research into graphic design with issues around the history of art and artists. The result is the most multifaceted depiction of a phenomenon of the time which was both unusual and characteristic, and which is still relevant today.