"Secession XIV, Beethoven," Alfred Roller, 1902.

Roller (1864-1935) was an Austrian painter, graphic designer, and set designer, who was (very obviously) a founding member of the Vienna Secession, which gave us the Art Nouveau style.

Roller was very active early in his career as a graphic designer, as we have here in this lithograph, advertising the 14th Vienna Secession exhibition that celebrated Beethoven. This is classic Vienna Secession...the stylized figure, the embrace of two dimensions, the collage-like treatment of different parts of the image, as simple areas of pattern. It's genuinely lovely and makes me sentimental for advertising like this.

Roller would later go on to design sets for operas conducted by his friend, the composer Gustav Mahler. He ended up becoming the chief designer of the Vienna State Opera.

From the Leopold Museum, Vienna.

#Art #AlfredRoller #Lithograph #ArtNouveau #ViennaSecession #Advertising

Wes Wilson, posters for concerts at the Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco, 1966–67, and Alfred Roller (lettering), Ver Sacrum Kalender, Austria, 1903.

See more from the Ver Sacrum calendar in the Online Archive: https://oa.letterformarchive.org/item?workID=lfa_austria_0001

#LetterformArchive #PsychedelicArt #WesWilson #FillmoreAuditorium #AlfredRoller #VerSacrum #Jugendstil #Lettering #GraphicDesignHistory