THE ILLUSTRATED POSTERS OF JUPP WIERTZ HD 1080p

[00:00:19]Ysef Lambert Vietz, better known by his nickname Jup, was born in 1888 in the northern German city of Aken.

[00:00:28]In his teens, he studied at the school of applied arts in the city and subsequently relocated to Berlin and attended their school of applied arts for more training, much of it in the complexities of traditional color lithography.

[00:00:42]In 1912, within a year or so of completing his art education, he started to work professionally and was mainly occupied with the creation of lithographic posters for various clients.

[00:00:54]At this stage, his stylistic approach was quite flat, cleanly composed, but nothing out of the ordinary for the time and place.

[00:01:02]In 1914, the Great War began, but for reasons I've been unable to find out, Viet did not fight for his country. And so, he was able to carry on working.

[00:01:12]And in general, he seems to have been a popular choice for quite frivolous imagery for various cabaret theaters and this particularly lively poster for a dance hall. But he did also produce this boldly executed dramatic two-color industrial poster in that year.

[00:01:29]In 1916, Viet entered a competition to design a poster for the AEG Nitra lamp.

[00:01:34]And although his design only came third, this limited success did draw more attention to his presence.

[00:01:42]And in that year he also started creating monochrome press ads among which were his earliest work for MercedesBenz the car manufacturer.

[00:01:51]In 1917 when he was 29 vs married 19-year-old her budau in Berlin. And it was also in 1917 that he designed this brilliantly composed and executed patriotic poster of a German biplane. A clear demonstration of his refined application of lithographic techniques.

[00:02:11]And at the same time, he also produced this bizarre and expressionistically styled poster urging German women to donate hanks of their hair for use on drive belts in machinery.

[00:02:22]In 1918, as Germany's imminent defeat became increasingly obvious, Viet continued to produce more posters, among which was a watercolor image for Mercedes, which also referenced the war.

[00:02:35]And once the country surrendered in that year, he returned to his usual client base and more formal graphic stylistic approach.

[00:02:44]By this point, he had earned a strong reputation for the quality of his poster designs. And in 1919, he was responsible with others for the founding of the Association of German Commercial Graphic Designers. And as the decade began, examples of his work in other contexts also started to appear.

[00:03:03]Among them was the 1920 publication of the book the downfall of the city of Xansu written by Carl Vilsinski.

[00:03:10]It was a limited edition which featured 10 expressionistic lithographs which were also handc colored by Vietz and this is now a particularly rare and highly collectible book.

[00:03:21]This more expressionist approach was also evident in some of his posters, but he manifestedly didn't want to be typcast and created just as many using flat areas of color in a more overtly modernist style.

[00:03:35]It was also at this time that his work began to appear with increasing frequency on the covers of German magazines, including the beginning of an enduring association with sporting build. But despite its title, not all the cover images connected directly to sporting activities.

[00:03:52]And although I found just this solitary example, he was also working as an artist and exhibiting paintings and lithographs.

[00:04:01]In 1921, V was also commissioned to illustrate a commemorative plate for the Rosental Ceramics Company, created each year by a chosen artist to celebrate Christmas.

[00:04:13]These other activities were fitted around his ongoing commitment to posters for various clients. And in the early years of the decade, he was also in demand for press advertising, including a sensitively rendered collection of images for the Gustavlosa perfume company.

[00:04:30]All these were originally drawn as monochrome lithographs, and the color was added by the posh stencil method, not used all that often outside France.

[00:04:40]But even if all were created using the same technique, even within this series, he consciously varied his stylistic approach to line work from Japanese influence minimalism through to more expressionist execution.

[00:04:55]Although at this time Germany was in dire straits due to the consequences of the financially punitive terms of their surrender with crippling inflation and widespread hunger. You would not have known it from V's work which focused exclusively on the lifestyle of those at the top of the social ladder who were having a high old time of it judging by the images he created.

[00:05:17]So the posters, press ads and magazine covers he produced throughout the decade were designed to appeal to the affluent and particularly women and all were suitably elegant images which conspicuously roam freely across a range of styles from the quite conventionally painted through to more posterized flatter coloring. And in some cases he even managed to successfully blend the two with stylish and aesthetically pleasing results.

[00:05:43]Unsurprisingly, it was perfume, skin care products, and fashionable clothing manufacturers who constituted the majority of his advertising clients at this time.

[00:05:53]The magazine covers and most of the press adids were reproduced using fourcolor offset lithography. But there were also some monochromes such as this painted image for Vogue perfumes and a particularly dynamic geometrical pure black and white car ad.

[00:06:10]Among other significant images he created in the later 1920s were a pair of posters each styled quite noticeably differently from the other for caladerma skin products. and another of equally enduring appeal for Vogue perfumes which was also marketed through press advertising again in an altogether different style.

[00:06:33]By the tail end of the decade, Germany was emerging from the misery of the earlier 1920s and Viet happily continued to promote luxury and elegance in all his work.

[00:06:43]And it was at this point that he created this travel poster for his hometown Aken, which would be his first in what would be a long line of other tourism related commissions throughout the 1930s.

[00:06:56]But for now, his work remained primarily targeted at German women and were, as you would expect, uniformly glamorous and enticing.

[00:07:05]But in the early years of the 30s, there was a pronounced shift in his subject matter towards travel and tourism, which was aimed at Germans and the international market with rapid growth in air and rail travel from other European countries, including Britain.

[00:07:20]Most of his post has now focused heavily on the more spectacular forested and mountainous regions of the country and V's stunning evocations of his homeland could not have failed to serve as an inducement to anyone looking for idilic rural locations.

[00:07:37]Meanwhile in 1933 Hitler's national socialist party became the government and from that point onwards tourism was under the direct control of the Reich.

[00:07:46]But the only image I found by Vitz which directly referenced the new bosses was this 1934 poster for a performance by the German air force orchestra and otherwise it was stunning evocations of rural beauty and ancient castles which were the order of the day.

[00:08:05]In 1934 his wife her died at the age of only 37. But Viet continued to work and despite the justifiable suspicion felt in other European countries about the intentions of the Nazis, international relations were still fairly untroubled.

[00:08:21]And in 1934, his Oberamagal poster won first prize in a French tourism poster competition because there is virtually nothing written about him. man forced to hazard a guess that at the time quite a few of his more scenic works were by now being reproduced directly from his painted originals using offset lithography.

[00:08:41]Other examples appear to still be created by the traditional hand transfer to the lithographic stones. But I stress this is just guesswork based on the nature of the various images. And if the images that resemble painted work were reproduced using traditional stone lithography, I can't think of anyone else creating similar with such complex and naturalistic tonal results.

[00:09:03]He remained absurdly prolific and in addition to the posters also got involved with other marketing print work in the form of brochures and tourist guides for the various German locations.

[00:09:14]And he was so busy at this time that in 1936 he took on two assistant designers to help out with handling the volume of work flowing through his Berlin studio.

[00:09:24]And although I have no idea how much creative input these assistants actually had, their contributions seem to have succeeded in enabling even greater output. And while most of the posters produced were travel themed or invitations to German cultural events such as the Bay Ruth Music Festival, there was on occasion other imagery such as this poster commemorating 50 years of MercedesBenz Motors.

[00:09:50]And it was in this period that Viet took briefly to the inclusion of this aesthetically unfortunate heart motif on a few of his otherwise impeccable posters, which mercifully didn't last long.

[00:10:03]Viet created several posters promoting the idea of transatlantic travel as yet unattainable by aeroplane on board the airships which had dramatically improved on the travel time required by ocean liners. And for a while this was a popular means of travel for the better healed on both sides of the Atlantic.

[00:10:22]But of course this popularity was very short-lived due to the disastrous fire and destruction of the Hindenburg in 1937 which killed hundreds of passengers.

[00:10:34]It was also in 1937 that he repeated his earlier success as another tourism poster competition. This one held as part of the World's Fair in Paris. His images for bad and experience the hearts mountains won first and second prize and his position as a leading internationally renowned travel poster designer was now unassailable.

[00:10:58]In 1938 it's recorded that Duke Via somehow injured himself using what the source described as paint sprayers which surely is a reference to a mechanical airbrush and the wound became infected.

[00:11:11]This led to sepsis and as the year turned to 1939, he died in Berlin at the age of just 50.

[00:11:19]So another highly talented illustrator and designer left the stage early. And if I didn't know better, I might think the profession was under some sort of curse.

[00:11:28]It's a great pity V wasn't around for the long haul, as in the relatively brief window he had, he'd clearly shown that he was a versatile and creative with restless human being who might have gone on in any number of directions had he been given the chance. I'll take some solace from the fact that he departed early enough to not have been obliged to sully his later reputation with the more lamentable Nazi propaganda posters those who did live through the war created.

[00:11:56]And due to the general shortage of available images, it's with that passing thought that I must conclude this video.