Küstlerhaus. Aquarellistenclub. 43. Aussttellung 

This poster by Bertold Löffler announces the 43rd exhibition of the Aquarellistenclub at the Künstlerhaus. We don’t have the date, but the style suggests it was made sometime in the first decades of the 20th century. What can be said about the social conditions that prompted the creation of this image? In the late 19th century, art societies and clubs became increasingly important in Austria and Germany. Artists who felt excluded from the official art institutions formed their own exhibiting societies. Some, like the Vienna Secession, went on to become very influential. Others, like the Aquarellistenclub, had a more modest impact. Posters like this are important historical documents, traces of institutional histories that are often forgotten. Scholars interested in the history of art institutions will often make use of archival sources, exhibition catalogues, newspaper reviews, and posters to understand the social and cultural context in which art is made and viewed. By doing so, they hope to reveal something about art's public role.