Acupuncture

About this print

This is the 8th War Loan (8. Kriegsanleihe) poster designed by Austrian artist Julius Klinger in 1918. Created to motivate financial support for the Austro-Hungarian war effort during World War I, the poster uses a powerful visual allegory: a serpent or dragon symbolizing the enemy is shown being subdued—pierced by eight arrows representing the eighth war bond campaign. Klinger, a key figure in the Vienna Secession and pioneer of modern commercial art, employed his signature style of graphic simplicity and bold symbolism. The design uses sharp lines, a reduced color palette of red, green, and black, and assertive geometry characteristic of the emerging Sachplakat (object poster) style. Klinger was born to a Jewish family in Vienna and studied under Koloman Moser. He became one of the leading poster designers of his era, known for reconciling applied arts with commerce. Tragically, after the Anschluss in 1938, Nazi racial laws ended his career. He was deported to Maly Trostinets concentration camp on June 2, 1942, and killed seven days later.