[From the Community Collection, a public trust in Agincourt, Iowa]

KLOTZ-DÜRRENBACH, Theodor [1890-1959]

Poster for an Exhibition

1919

woodcut / 9.5 inches by  6.5 inches / #5 from an unspecified edition

Viennese artist Theodor Klotz-Dürrenbach is poorly represented in auction sale catalogues, though he seems to have created both woodcuts and paintings. This poster for a Viennese exhibit of fairytale-based woodcuts (märchen holzschnitte) was printed in 1919. The print is accompanied in the collection by a book illustrated by the same artist—Russische Volksmärchen by Eugen Weller, published in 1925—which includes four full-page woodcut illustrations by Klotz-Dürrenbach.

Both print and illustrated book came from the personal library of Dr Reinhold Kölb, founder of the Walden Clinic. Though untitled, the print tells us about itself—”Fairytale Woodcuts by Klotz-Dürrenbach”—and indirectly about the circumstances of its presence in the Kölb library: the good doctor famously used the fabrication of fairy tales in his innovative drama-therapy and public shows of puppetry.