PERSONAL WORK
BAUHAUS TO YOUR HOUSE
ALEXANDER LIBERMAN WALTER ALLNER
FRED TROLLER
V F A
THREE LEGENDARY
20TH
CENTURY DESIGNERS
Published in the United States of America
Copyright © 2026 by Vallarino Fine Art, New York, NY
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without the permission in writing from the publisher.
THREE LEGENDARY 20TH CENTURY DESIGNERS
In each of my paintings there is a statement. I hope the viewer asks himself, ‘What’s going on here?’ The answer is there to be seen. In each painting, or series of paintings, it is the evolution of a form, or many forms, that is the statement. The aesthetics lie in seeing the changes themselves, more than in seeing the overall composition which may result. I believe that in the process of following the evolution of a given visual theme, the viewer becomes involved in the experience of seeing.”
Fred Troller at the 1965 opening of his first solo exhibition in the United States, at the Grace Borgenicht gallery in New York. The show featured works of sclpture.
Left Top: Untitled, 1961, oil and mixed media collage on canvas, 42 x 42 inches
Left Bottom: Untitled, 1961, oil and mixed media collage on canvas, 48 x 48 inches
Untitled, 1978, gouache on paper 29 x 23 inches (sheet)
Untitled, 1978, gouache on paper 11 x 11 inches (sheet)
Opposite: Untitled, 1978, gouache on paper, 31 x 23 inches (sheet)
Untitled, 1978, gouache on paper 31 x 23 inches (sheet)
Left to right: Untitled (Ibiza Series nr. 13), 1968, graphite and gouache on paper, 25 1/2 x 19 5/8 inches
Untitled (Ibiza Series nr. 17), 1968, graphite and gouache on paper, 25 1/2 x 19 5/8 inches
Untitled (Ibiza Series nr. 19), 1968, graphite and gouache on paper, 25 1/2 x 19 5/8 inches
“In my present work I concern myself also with the phenomena of time and space, which always has been integral to my art. Observing and analyzing the subtle changes of space, color and structure on a simple object is a basis of my visual experiments.”
Untitled, 2000, pastel on paper, 40 x 26 inches
Untitled, 2000, pastel on paper, 40 x 26 inches
Untitled, 2002, pastel on paper, 40 x 26 inches
Following four pages: Untitled, 2000, pastel on paper, 40 x 26 inches
all
This page
images: Untitled, 2001 pastel on paper, 40 x 26 inches
Opposite: Untitled, 2002, pastel on paper, 40 x 26 inches
selected exhibitions
1948-1950 Exhibition Zürcher Künstler im Helmhaus
1954 Galerie 16, Zurich; (first solo exhibition)
1956 Galerie au Premier, Zurich
1957 Kilchberg, Switzerland; Exhibition Zurich-Land
1962 Louis Alexander Gallery; Drawings
1962 Louis Alexander Gallery; Group Show
1962 Mortimer Brandt Gallery; Artists of Promise
1964 Betty Parsons Gallery, New York; Artists Make Toys
1964 The Composing Room, New York; Graphic Design at Geigy
1965 New York Art Directors Club
1965 Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Young America
1965 Grace Borgenicht Gallery, New York; New Sculptures (solo exhibition)
1966 Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, Philadelphia; 161st Annual Exhibition
1966 AIGA Gallery, New York; Fifty Years of Graphic Arts in America
1967 Grace Borgenicht Gallery, New York; New Sculptures (solo exhibition)
1967 Philadelphia College of Art, Philadelphia; Faculty Show
1969 Julliard School of Music, New York; Geigy Art Collection
1970 Grace Borgenicht Gallery, New York; Recent Constructions (reviewed in ARTnews)
1970 AIGA Gallery, New York; The AIGA Survival Show
1971 Hudson River Museum, New York; A New Consciousness, Ciba Geigy Collection
1971 New York Cultural Center, New York; The Swiss Avant Garde
1972 University of Texas Medical School, San Antonia; Swiss Art
1972 Galerie Kramgasse, Bern; Rendezvous der Weltweiten Schweiz
1973 Union Carbide Gallery, New York; Swiss Artists in the USA
1973 Harold Ernst Gallery, Boston; Liquid Art (solo exhibition)
1973 Kunstmuseum, Dusseldorf; Press-Art
1973 Kunsthaus, Zurich; Collection Peau de Lion
1974 Callaway Gardens; Pine Mountain, GA, Contemporary Swiss Artists
1974 Galerie Lydia Megert, Bern; International Exhibition–Small Formats
1974 Whitney Museum of American Art; New York, Color (AIGA Show)
1975 Neuberger Museum, Purchase, NY; Group Show
1976 Museo la Tertulia, Cali, Columbia; III American Biennale of Graphic Arts
1977 Stadtische Kunsthalle, Dusseldorf; The Museum of Drawers
1977 Bridge Gallery, White Plains, NY; One-Man Exhibition
1977 Union Carbide Gallery, New York; Artists ’77 , International Play Group
1978 Kutztown State College, Kutztown, PA; Six Designers
1980 State University of New York, Purchase; Faculty Show
1981 Galerie Ernst Scheidegger, Zurich; One-Man Exhibition
1983 Galerie Ernst Scheidegger, Zurich; One-Man Exhibition
1984 Bank Julius Baer (Hotel Pierre, New York); New York, NY by 6 Swiss Artists
1984 Brno, Czechoslovakia; Biennale of Graphic Design
1987 Swiss Institute, New York; Group Show
1987 Hiram Halle Memorial Library, Pound Ridge, NY; One-Man Show
1989 PMW Gallery, Stamford, CT; Group Show
1990 Swiss Institute, New York; Manipulations: Light & Shadow (two person show)
1992 Keller Bachmann & Partner, Zurich; The Belchite Series (solo exhibition)
1992 Alfred University, Fosdick-Nelson Gallery, Alfred, NY; One-Man Exhibition
1995 Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA; Troller Retrospective: 30 Years of Graphic Design
1999 Alfred University, Fosdick-Nelson Gallery, Alfred, NY; Faculty Show
2001 Flinn Gallery, Greenwich, Masks, Motorcycles and Bulldogs
2016 McCormick Gallery, Chicago, IL; Swiss Modernist in Gotham
collections
Kungstgewerbemuseum, Zurich
Graphische Sammlung de Eidg. Tech. Hochschule, Zurich
Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Geigy Chemical Corporation, Ardsley, NY
University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA
University of new Mexico, Albuquerque, NM
Peau de Lion, Zurich
Westinghouse, Corporation, Pittsburgh, PA
Sandor-Wander Corporation, East Hannover, NJ
Swiss Bank Corporation, New York, NY
Numerous private collections in Switzerland and the United States
teaching positions
School of Visual Arts, New York, NY
Purdue University, Indiana
The Philadelphia College of Art, Philadelphia, PA
State University of New York, Purchase, NY
Ohio State University, Columbus, OH
Southeastern Massachusetts University, Dartmouth, MA
Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI
Cooper Union, New York, NY
Università per Stranieri Perugia, Ambasciatrice dell’Italia nel mondo
Alfred University, Alfred, NY
ALLNER WALTER
Walter Allner noted designer, typographer and painter was trained at the Bauhaus under Josef Albers, Vasily Kandisky and Joost Schmidt. He also worked for a short time with Otto Neurath, inventor of the Isoype, at the Österreichisches Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum in Vienna. He also worked briefly with Piet Zwart, the influential Dutch typographer. He worked for Graphis Paris from 1945 to 1948 and emigrated to the United States in 1949 where he worked for several corporate clients, including Johnson and Johnson (1954-1955) and RCA Records, (1965-1967) as well as the American Cancer Society, ITT and IBM. He is most noted for his tenure as Art Director at Fortune magazine from 1962 to 1974. He personally created 79 covers for Fortune magazine and was known for his innovative use of computers in his design. Long before the personal computer revolutionized the methods used to produce graphic design, Mr. Allner predicted the integration of aesthetics and advanced technology, and so worked directly with computer engineers whenever he could.
“Allner’s interest in science, coupled with a venturesome spirit, has led him into exciting new design fields,” wrote John Lahr in a 1966 article in Print magazine.This spirit was evident with other comparably ambitious Fortune covers, notably one in which he arranged for dozens of windows on 20 floors of the Time & Life building in New York to be illuminated at night to spell out 500. To create this huge temporary electric sign he had to persuade everyone in the offices — many not employed by Time Inc. — to cooperate.
After a rainstorm thwarted his initial attempt, the project was eventually photographed from a nearby hotel.He also experimented with ways of dealing with light and pioneered a form of kinetic light painting.
