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Edward McKnight Kauffer, 1890-1954

Main details

Main details for this item.
Reference number
1996/4931
Name
Edward McKnight Kauffer Hon RDI
Born
1890
Collection
Object type
  • Person
Completeness
36%
  • Biography

    AttributeValue
    Biography
    Born in 1890 in Great Falls, Montana, USA, Edward Kauffer studied art at the Mark Hopkins Institute in San Francisco, and then in Paris in 1913, where he was sponsored by Professor McKnight of the University of Utah.

    In 1914 he came to London, and the following year was commissioned by Frank Pick to design his first poster. London Underground was to become his most important client.

    McKnight Kauffer was associated with the Cumberland Market Group and the Vorticists, being represented in Wyndham Lewis's Group X exhibition in 1920. He was an active member of the London Group and secretary of the Group from 1917 to 1919. Kauffer served regularly on the Group's hanging committee and he designed a number of distinctive cubist posters and private view cards for London Group exhibitions. Kauffer's startingly colourful geometric compositions aroused much attention and controversy when they were exhibited at London Group shows. The Star wrote in April 1917: '"Low Tide" (No. 10), by Mr Kauffer, shows a purple bridge all out of drawing, with yellow shadows, and red, white and blue barges sailing across a pink and green sky. These colours may not be accurate, but they are all there. The thing is a prismatic mess which might have been hung upside down (and probably is) without damage to its title.'Born in Great Falls, Montana, USA, Edward Kauffer studied art at the Mark Hopkins Institute in San Francisco, and then in Paris in 1913, where he was sponsored by Professor McKnight of the University of Utah.
    Education
    Mark Hopkins Institute, San Francisco, USA,
    Paris, 1913
    Employment
    Designed posters for the Underground Group and London Transport, 1915-1939
    Role
    Artist,