Kauffer's Graphic Taste

Like Whistler and Benjamin West before him, E. McKnight Kauffer was a member of that fraternity of American artists whose reputations were made in the bosom of Mother England. Kauffer was the quintessential commercial artist, and this month New York's CooperHewitt Museum will mount an important exhibition of the best of his work, including theater designs, book illustrations, and posters (particularly those done for the London Underground) that show him as a modem master of the form.

Dynamically structured and deliciously hued, Kauffer's Underground posters, like those of his French equivalent, Cassandre, spread the romantic gospel of urban travel in the age of the railroad. Kauffer gave the Underground its allure. What a pity he never worked for the BMT.

RICHARD MERKIN