Xanti (Alexander) Schawinsky - Giro d'Italia/Vetrina Motta, Galleria, Milano - image-1

Lot 518 N

Xanti (Alexander) Schawinsky - Giro d'Italia/Vetrina Motta, Galleria, Milano

Auction 1199 - overview Cologne
01.06.2022, 14:00 - Photography
Estimate: 1.000 € - 1.500 €
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Xanti (Alexander) Schawinsky

Giro d'Italia/Vetrina Motta, Galleria, Milano
1934

Vintage gelatin silver hand-tinted. 19.1 x 13.8 cm. Signed, dated and titled in pencil on the verso. - Extensive positive retouching for reproduction purpose; print with traces of usage.

After emigrating to Italy, Schawinsky worked as a graphic designer for advertising, where he was able to utilise his knowledge of photography and typography acquired at the Bauhaus. His unconventional window design for the store of the Motta pastry manufacturer near the Cathedral in Milan on the occasion of the 'Giro d'Italia' demonstrates a “new advertising style” (Max Bill) with its humour, liveliness and elegance. According to Herbert Bayer, a Bauhaus colleague, Xanti Schawinsky had a decisive influence on the graphic design of the 1930s in Italy.

Provenance

Estate of Xanti Schawinsky; private collection, Switzerland

Literature

Hans Heinz Holz, Xanti Schawinsky. Bewegung im Raum. Bewegung des Raums, Zurich 1981, ill. p. 49 (this print); Peter Hahn (ed.), Xanti Schawinsky. Malerei, Bühne, Grafikdesign, Fotografie, Berlin 1986, ill. p. 67 (this print)