Friedrich Wilhelm Kleukens designed this poster for the 1908 Hessian State Exhibition, the third of four major exhibitions organized by the Darmstadt Artists’ Colony. It was also the first exhibition in which local artists, businesses, and art students were invited to exhibit alongside members of the group. The intention was to promote the applied arts of the German state of Hesse, where Darmstadt was located, and to demonstrate the colony’s positive influence on local craftsmanship. The exhibition building and Darmstadt’s famous Wedding Tower, both designed by Joseph Maria Olbrich, were also inaugurated at the 1908 exhibition; both buildings elevated the use of local materials in their construction.
Kleukens specialized in commercial graphic design and trained at the Kunstgewerbeschule (School of Applied Arts) in Berlin. In 1906, he was invited to join the Darmstadt Artists’ Colony, where he designed posters, invitations, menus, and concert programs as well as mosaics and the clock on the Wedding Tower. In 1907, he became co-director of the Ernst Ludwig Presse, founded by Ernst Ludwig, grand duke of Hesse and patron of the colony. As part of his work in book arts, Kleukens designed typefaces including Ratio Latein, Ingeborg Antiqua, and Kleukens Antiqua. The latter may be the source for the type used in this poster.
Erin Sullivan Maynes
