1918–1924: Beginnings and Marmorhaus Berlin

1918–1924: Beginnings and Marmorhaus Berlin

Over the course of six months of 1918, the first year of his professional career, Josef Fenneker designed more than forty film posters for the recently founded Universum Film AG (Ufa). The works typically have the feel of rough sketches and are almost reminiscent of oversized charcoal drawings. Fenneker favors generous hatchings, interrupted lines and largely monochrome execution in these posters. Color is used solely to set accents.

During that same year, Fenneker also designed his first posters for the Marmorhaus. His collaboration with the Berlin cinema known for its fabulous movie premieres lead to a stylistic change: his linear sketches gave way to watercolor-like brush strokes. Expressive overdrawing, unexpected coloration and prevalent black backgrounds soon became fundamental design elements. Fenneker also began picking up on themes to toy with the public's expectations, particularly symbols of death in morbid surroundings, frequently combined with an erotic component. This most productive phase in the work of the poster artist Josef Fenneker ended abruptly in 1924 when Siegbert Goldschmidt suffered financial ruin. Goldschmidt, the owner of the Marmorhaus, had been Fenneker's biggest client.