Maison de la Publicité Project, Paris, France (Exterior and interior perspective of upper floors and workshop)
Oscar Nitzchke
American, born Germany. 1900–1991
1936
An ink, gouache, colored‑pencil, and graphite presentation drawing of Nitzchke’s 1936 proposal for the Maison de la Publicité that combines a glass‑like, grid façade with a cutaway upper floor showing advertising production and display.
The image reads like a staged diorama: a tall flag and a stark black grid façade anchor the composition while a sunlit cutaway reveals floating figures, furniture, and oversized typographic signs integrated into the interior structure.
The drawing embodies 1930s modernist thinking about transparency, standardization, and the building-as-media, anticipating later conversations about façades as advertising surfaces and architecture’s role in mass communication.
Medium
Ink, color pencil, gouache, and graphite on spiral-notebook card stock
Dimensions
28 x 20 1/2" (71.1 x 52.1 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of Lily Auchincloss, Barbara Jakobson, and Walter Randel
Accession
424.1976.12
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
