La exposición se divide en varias secciones:

- Teatro, la transfiguración de la realidad. Se recogen los carteles que Mucha realizó para la compañía de Sarah Bernhart, además de decorados, vestuarios y joyas diseñadas por el artista. 

- La metrópolis como escenario de la obra de Mucha. La Exposición Universal de París 1900 suposo el punto de partida de la expansión internacional del "Estilo Mucha". Viena, Munich y Nueva York fueron otras de las ciudades que influyeron en su obra.

- Misterio al encuentro del sueño y el ideal. Mucha utilizó en sus obras metáforas enigmática y signos esotéricos. Mucha realizó series de cuatro cuatros sobre diferentes temas. Creo que es en este apartado en el que podrán encontrar dos de mis preferidas: "La luna y las estrellas", en tonos marrones y azulados; y "Las piedras preciosas".

- La epopeya eslava, una visión: son un conjunto de obras que rememoran los hitos de la historia de los pueblos eslavos. En esta sala verán también billetes y sellos diseñados por Mucha para la nueva República de Checoslovaquia, fundada en 1918.

- Belleza, la mujer como musa e icono: inocentes, a la par que sensuales. Así son las mujeres que refleja Mucha en su obra. Las pinta en plena armonía con la naturaleza, rodeadas de elementos decorativos. Destacan los tonos pasteles y los dorados. De esta sección destaco otras series de paneles decorativos: "Las flores", "Los momentos del día" y "Las artes".

- La fotografía como medio y como arte: Caixa Forum dedica una sala a fotografías realizadas por Mucha, que le sirvieron como fuente de inspiración y estudio para sus modelos. Es curioso reconocer en los cuadros a las mujeres que previamente has visto en las fotos o viceversa.

- Modernidad, Mucha y la génesis de la publicidad: marcas como Job Cigarros, Moët Chandon, Lances Parfum Rodo o Lefévre Utile se vieron enriquecidas con envases diseñados por Mucha (precedente del packaging).

- y la difusión del "Estilo Mucha" o el Art Nouveau: Alexandre de Riquer, Eulogio Varela y Gaspar Camps fueron algunos de los creadores que se dejaron influir por la obra de Mucha.

CaixaForum Madrid. Paseo del Prado, 36. Hasta el 31 de agosto.

Ayer martes visité en CaixaForum Madrid la exposición Alphonse Mucha (1860-1939) Seducción, modernidad y utopía, que se inauguró el pasado día 30 de abril y finalizará el próximo 31 de agosto.

Para quienes no conozcan a este autor y su obra, cito textualmente el apunte que se da en el programa de mano de la citada exposición:

Alphonse Mucha (1860-1939) fue uno de los artistas más conocidos de su tiempo, creador y divulgador del estilo Art Nouveau, pionero en la aplicación del arte a la publicidad y uno de los padres del diseño gráfico moderno. Sus carteles y pinturas causaron admiración en París y contaron con imitadores en todo el mundo. El arte de Mucha aspira a la belleza. Sus elaboradas composiciones ponen en juego elementos teatrales y alegóricos, y crean una atmósfera de misterio cercana a la poética simbolista.

Esta exposición presenta todas las facetas del arte de Alphonse Mucha a partir de cuatro grandes temas fundamentales -teatro, belleza, misterio y modernidad-, y también presta atención a otros cuatro aspectos particulares que permiten comprender mejor el alcance de su obra: la metrópolis como escenario; la fotografía como medio y como arte; la epopeya eslava, una visión, y la difusión del «estilo Mucha», para el que se toma como ejemplo el modernismo en Madrid y Barcelona.

Esta es la primera vez que se presenta en España una gran exposición dedicada a Alphonse Mucha, que es fruto de la colaboración entre la Fundación ”la Caixa” y la Mucha Foundation, entidad que vela por la conservación y divulgación de la obra del artista.

Brevemente daré mi opinión sobre la exposición: considero que se ha hecho buen montaje, con una distribución que facilita enormemente la visita y que separa perferctamente los fondos expuestos en 4 ámbitos independientes, diferenciados por colores:

1. La primera sala reúne la obra relativa al teatro, con los carteles realizados para la actriz Sarah Bernhardt y, en un espacio aparte, los trabajos referentes a la Exposición Universal de París de 1900.

2. Seguidamente, se contemplan sus obras relacionadas con las ciencias ocultas y signos esotéricos. Y en este segundo apartado, también en otro subespacio, las obras de su "Epopeya eslava".

3. En tercer lugar, podemos ver las mujeres, entendidas por el ator como la representación absolta sde la belleza; son mujeres elegantes, sensuales y seductoras. Compariendo sala, pero en sitio independiente, se pueden observar sus fotografías, casi todas ellas composicione privadas.

4. Finalmente, se exhiben las obras dedicadas a la publicidad, trabajos siempre espectaculares, barrocos, que iniciaron un nuevo campo en el Art Nouveau.

Para terminar, siento la necesidad de señalar la obra que más me ha impresionado de toda la exposición,  que es un pequeño dibujo, de no más de 30 por 40 cm., en lápiz azul sobre papel, del año 1925, titulado sencillamente como "Retrato de mujer", que representa el rostro de una mujer, que apoya sobre sus propias manos y que me ha cautivado por sus rasgos, pero especialmente por la fuerza que transmite su mirada. Si vais a ver la exposición, no dejeís de buscarlo.

Así en frío, a muchos el nombre de Alphonse Mucha (al que algunos sitios llaman Alfons) no les dirá nada, pero seguro que sí lo hace o ha hecho su obra, que sin saberlo os resultará muy familiar. No tanto porque la conozcáis al detalle, sino porque al haber sido un referente importante para los artistas de su época y posteriores, muchos de ellos le han copiado (o se han basado en su estilo) hasta la saciedad. Alphonse fue un gran divulgador del Art Nouveau (traducido a Modernismo en español) en la disciplina del diseño, y junto a otros artistas de otras tantas disciplinas (pintores como Gustav Klimt o arquitectos Antoni Gaudi) realizó su propia interpretación de este arte, en su caso llevándolo a la publicidad. Según la nota de la exposición, Alphonse es, además, uno de los primeros promotores del diseño gráfico moderno, ahí es nada. ¿A que os han dado ganas de ir?  

Como datos técnicos deciros que el Caixa Forum colabora en esta exposición con la Fundación Mucha, que es la que facilita las obras y que gestiona todo el patrimonio artístico del autor, incluido El Museo Mucha que está en Praga. Si se os antoja comprar algún póster o cartel y no podéis ir Praga, o no los venden el el Caixa Forum, que sepáis que el Museo Mucha cuenta con una tienda online bastante interesante. Ni que decir tiene que podréis encontrar mil y un carteles ideales para regalar.

Contemporáneamente a la exposición podréis acudir a otra serie de eventos (charlas y coloquios sobre carteles, pop art, etc.). Más detalles aquí.

Creo que esta exposición me va a gustar más que la de los Ufizzi...

CaixaForum Madrid reúne, por primera vez en España, la exposición ''Alphonse Mucha (1860-1939), seducción, modernidad y utopía'', dedicada al artista checo creador y difusor del estilo ''art nouveau''. La muestra, que podrá visitase en la entidad cultural del 30 de abril de 31 de agosto, está compuesta por más de 200 piezas entre las que se encuentran pinturas, dibujos, carteles, fotografías, esculturas y joyas.

Alphonse Mucha (1860-1939) fue uno de los artistas más conocidos de su tiempo, creador y divulgador del estilo Art Nouveau, pionero en la aplicación del arte a la publicidad y uno de los padres del diseño gráfico moderno. Sus carteles y pinturas causaron admiración en París y contaron con imitadores en todo el mundo. El arte de Mucha aspira a la belleza. Sus elaboradas composiciones ponen en juego elementos teatrales y alegóricos, y crean una atmósfera de misterio cercana a la poética simbolista.

Esta exposición presenta todas las facetas del arte de Alphonse Mucha a partir de cuatro grandes temas fundamentales -teatro, belleza, misterio y modernidad-, y también presta atención a otros cuatro aspectos particulares que permiten comprender mejor el alcance de su obra: la metrópolis como escenario; la fotografía como medio y como arte; la epopeya eslava, una visión, y la difusión del «estilo Mucha», para el que se toma como ejemplo el modernismo en Madrid y Barcelona.

Esta es la primera vez que se presenta en España una gran exposición dedicada a Alphonse Mucha, que es fruto de la colaboración entre la Fundación ”la Caixa” y la Mucha Foundation, entidad que vela por la conservación y divulgación de la obra del artista.

Foto: Caixa Forum: Cartel para bicicletas Perfecta, 1902 (detalle). Mucha Foundation © Mucha Trust

Recordemos que Mucha comienza su carrera de modo autodidacta, dedicándose a la creación de escenarios en obras  de teatro. Tras graduarse en la Academia de Arte de Munich, el ilustrador checo se traslada a la cuna del arte, Paris.

Gracias a la pasión con la que la actriz Sarah Bernard recibe la obra retratista del pintor, Mucha salta a la fama y decora las calles de Paris con los carteles de las obras teatrales de la misma. De ahí a la pintura publicitaria y a la exportación a toda Europa y Estados Unidos.

Mucha que, durante la ocupación Nazi, fue arrestado por la Gestapo, murió en Praga, en el verano de 1939.

Author/Publisher: Unknown

Date Published: 2006

Pages: 223

My first contact with Alphonse Mucha was at a very young age, my diary had one of his artworks for the cover. I had always loved his style, yet never knew who the artist was. It was only when I happened across a print of his work in a local framing store that I found out his identity. Since then I jumped at the chance to buy this book.

Mucha specialises in a decorative, romantic style of illustration. His works evokes old world charm, mysteriousness and are often based on elemental designs (for instance his common theme of the four seasons). His style has been imitated and comes in and out of fashion frequently (for instance the Art Nouveau movement during the 1960's was said to have been influenced by artists such as Mucha). It is unashamedly feminine - the fashion, fauna and ornamental bordering.  

In this book women are the major focus. Women are represented as goddesses, youthful and full of character. They are fleshy and real looking. He also illustrates famous actresses, immortalising their performances. One of my favorites is the advertisement for the play 'Medea' - the horror in the actresses eyes after she has just slain her own children is incredible. Interestingly enough women are also used for advertising purposes and readers may recognise some of the brands.

Though this is the main focus of the book there are also some of his less famous works. Mucha was said to design a whole range of things - advertisements, crockery and jewellery. His 'The Slav Epic' gets a brief image in the forward. Many of his beautiful sketches are included in the book.

Strangely enough many of the images in this book are repeated a few times, though with different colouring. I am not sure whether this is to show different prints of the same work or whether it is the books way of filling pages.

It was hard to give a score to this book given that I am a fan of his works. There are a great deal of pages, yet I know that the books layout and its lack of design other than being a 'picture book' would alienate those who do not enjoy his art. It would have been good if 'The Slav Epic' had been shown properly, rather than his more famous, commercial art. Also, the Chinese text hampers just a tad to those who don't speak any form of Chinese. This is a book for fans only, though undoubtedly there would be a much better chronicle of his works on the market.

♥♥½ - 2½/5

Subscribers paid nothing for these prints, other than the price of the magazine. Today, though, if you want to purchase one of these posters, you are looking at a price of several hundred dollars apiece – more for the works of the more famous artists.

An important catalogue of 256 of these prints, Les Maîtres de l’Affiche, offers a representative selection of art of la Belle Epoque.

Published in Paris, this collection reflects the well-deserved pride of the French at having invented the artistic commercial poster. Jules Chéret, the artist-director of the printing house, was the father of this artistic genre. For his role in launching the golden age of the poster, he was awarded Légion d’Honneur.

He believed that advertising design at the time was vulgar and lacked redeeming artistic features. Chéret was the first to associate a woman with a product; for example, beverages such as Dubonnet, various pastilles and soaps, music halls such as les Folies Bergère.

His salon artists covered the buildings and walls of Paris with images of beautiful women, turning the city into a plein-air museum.

It was not only the French who collected these posters; it is estimated that 6,000 American subscribers also had a collection. Major museums such as the Metropolitan and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Louvre in Paris, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, also acquired these works for their permanent collections.

One of the best-known Maîtres de l’Affiche was Alphonse Mucha. His images were appropriated during the 1960s for theatre posters, and they often featured actress Sarah Bernhardt. Another well-known contributor was Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, whose art celebrated the Parisian cabaret and the bohemian life in Montmartre.

The complete set of 256 prints illustrated in Les Maîtres de l’Affiche or its English-language counterpart, Masters of the Poster, provide an enticing glimpse into the bohemian life of la Belle Epoque.

Subscribers paid nothing for these prints, other than the price of the magazine. Today, though, if you want to purchase one of these posters, you are looking at a price of several hundred dollars apiece – more for the works of the more famous artists.

An important catalogue of 256 of these prints, Les Maîtres de l’Affiche, offers a representative selection of art of la Belle Epoque.

Published in Paris, this collection reflects the well-deserved pride of the French at having invented the artistic commercial poster. Jules Chéret, the artist-director of the printing house, was the father of this artistic genre. For his role in launching the golden age of the poster, he was awarded Légion d’Honneur.

He believed that advertising design at the time was vulgar and lacked redeeming artistic features. Chéret was the first to associate a woman with a product; for example, beverages such as Dubonnet, various pastilles and soaps, music halls such as les Folies Bergère.

His salon artists covered the buildings and walls of Paris with images of beautiful women, turning the city into a plein-air museum.

It was not only the French who collected these posters; it is estimated that 6,000 American subscribers also had a collection. Major museums such as the Metropolitan and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Louvre in Paris, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, also acquired these works for their permanent collections.

During the 1960s, vintage posters were all the rage, and their themes were popular in the psychedelic art of the time. 60s posters were influenced by the Art Nouveau style, re-inventing the decorative arts of the fin du siècle. The inspiration for their graphics and typography was taken from nature: images of plants and animals represented in the style of the Middle Ages.

One of the best-known Maîtres de l’Affiche was Alphonse Mucha. His images were appropriated during the 1960s for theatre posters, and they often featured actress Sarah Bernhardt. Another well-known contributor was Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, whose art celebrated the Parisian cabaret and the bohemian life in Montmartre.

The complete set of 256 prints illustrated in Les Maîtres de l’Affiche or its English-language counterpart, Masters of the Poster, provide an enticing glimpse into the bohemian life of la Belle Epoque.

__________

______

Bajé al pueblo. Un poco duro volver a subir, pero fue un hermoso paseo, y tonificante. Menos mal que me había traído algunos cartones de Gitanes, porque en el pueblo tienen sólo Marlboro Light. Gente de campo.

______

La misteriosa llama de la reina Loana - Umberto Eco (2004)

Cartel de Alphonse Mucha (1898)
(Click)

[foto: dragonfly woman, rené lalique]

So here is my re-organized studio. I love my new table - it is just perfect. It has shelves underneath, two drawers, and the top part you can either put up or down, plus it has see-through bags and loops for more storage. I still need a chair though...

I was able to put all of my boxes (that I use to make embellished boxes for gift-giving) in my bead cabinet (which had a prevous life as my mom's china cabinet) and I was also able to stack the bins containing my rubber stamps, inks and other coloring agents, embellishments, and future jewelry projects, on top. This freed up a lot of room on the floor, which is where all that stuff used to be, and eliminated all of that clutter.

Then there are my meager, but beloved, decorations - my Marilyn pictures, my 2007 Wizard of Oz calendar (which will remain hanging up because I like the pictures). I recently realized how un-creative and un-artistic my studio looks (I decided to call it my studio even though it's only a corner of a room. "Studio" sounds more serious than "play area".) so I want to start displaying some of my work as well as other things I find inspiring, like these beautiful cards I found at Wegman's featuring the artwork of Alphonse Mucha.

This is The Precious Stones: Amethyst, 1900, and Documents decoratifs, 1902.

And this is The Arts: Music, 1898.

I just love these. It's hard to see in these pictures, but there is a generous amount of glitter on each card. I'd never heard of Alphonse Mucha before I picked up these cards; I'll have to do some research and find out more about him and his work.

And the final touch to my studio would be the removal of the wood paneling (someday...) Wood paneling was apparently the wall covering of choice for the previous occupants of our house, because it's everywhere, and I really hate it. It's the antithesis of artistry. oh well. Someday it will be gone, and that will be a very happy day indeed.

1860–1939

el pintor de todos los carteles de la época modernista.
esta obra suya me parece extraordinaria.me eriza los pelillos de los brazos siempre que la veo.
me quedo largo rato mirándola sin cansarme. ]]> http://pequenas.wordpress.com/2008/02/03/110/ Sun, 03 Feb 2008 03:30:36 +0000 Dora http://pequenas.wordpress.com/2008/02/03/110/ ]]> http://pequenas.wordpress.com/2008/02/03/108/ Sun, 03 Feb 2008 03:29:23 +0000 Dora http://pequenas.wordpress.com/2008/02/03/108/ ]]> http://pequenas.wordpress.com/2008/02/03/106/ Sun, 03 Feb 2008 03:28:18 +0000 Dora http://pequenas.wordpress.com/2008/02/03/106/

Although lithography was invented in 1798, it was at first too slow and expensive for poster production. Most posters were woodblocks or metal engravings with little color or design.

This all changed with Cheret's "three stone lithographic process," a breakthrough which allowed artists to achieve every color in the rainbow with as little as three stones - usually red, yellow and blue - printed in careful registration.

Although the process was difficult, the result was a remarkable intensity of color and texture, with sublime transparencies and nuances impossible in other media (even to this day). This ability to combine word and image in such an attractive and economical format finally made the lithographic poster a powerful innovation. Starting in the 1870s in Paris, it became the dominant means of mass communication in the rapidly growing cities of Europe and America. The streets of Paris, Milan and Berlin were quickly transformed into the "art gallery of the street," and ushered in the modern age of advertising.

Cheret, Jules
Palais de Glace (striped dress), 1896

Note: One of Cheret's top images, with the flowing counterpoint of the ice skaters and the fabulous striped dress. Hard to find.

Cheret, Jules
Job - Fumar el Papel, 1895

Note: A gal with attitude - one of Cheret's most famous designs captures the jaunty pose of an emancipated young woman more than a century ago. One of Cheret's most inspired designs, with vibrant color and panache. Is it any wonder Parisians loved Cheret's posters so much that his girls were nicknamed "Cherettes"?

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The Belle Epoque

During the 1890s, called the "Belle Epoque" in France, a poster craze came into full bloom. In 1891, Toulouse-Lautrec's first poster, Moulin Rouge, elevated the status of the poster to fine art. Poster exhibitions, magazines and dealers proliferated, satisfying the public's love affair with the poster. Early in the decade, the pioneering Parisian dealer Sagot listed 2200 different posters in his sales catalog!

In 1894, Alphonse Mucha, a Czech working in Paris, created the first masterpiece of Art Nouveau poster design. The flowery, ornate style was born practically overnight when Mucha was pressed to produce a poster for Sarah Bernhardt, the brilliant actress who had taken Paris by storm. Bearing multiple influences including the Pre-Raphaelites, the Arts and Crafts Movement, and Byzantine art, this style was to dominate the Parisian scene for the next ten years and to become the major international decorative art movement up until World War I.

Toulouse-Lautrec, Henri de
Moulin Rouge (from Maitres de l’Affiche), 1898

Note: This is the most after of the plates from the Masters of the Poster series, which consists of 256 small format lithographic plates of the best posters of the Belle Epoque. These collectible miniatures were painstakingly produced four per month from 1895 to 1900 by no less than the father of the poster, Jules Cheret, in conjunction with his printer Chaix.

The Maitres series was the outgrowth of the international poster craze of the 1890s, when the new advertising medium transformed the boulevards of Paris and other major cities into the "art gallery of the street." Posters by Cheret, Livemont, Lautrec, Mucha and others became widely collected, and Cheret realized that many collectors would enjoy a portfolio of the best posters from around the world that could be admired in a smaller, more practical format. The series was an enormous success, and continues to be highly popular today. Ninety-seven artists' work is represented in the series; maitres by the best artists are often as rare as the original large format images.

Each print is embossed with the emblem of the printer Chaix, and is marked with its number in the series.

Mucha, Alphonse
Biscuits Lefevre-Utile, 1897

Note: A calendar became the excuse for Alphonse Mucha to create a tour de force poster for the popular brand of Biscuits Lefevre-Utile in 1897. The great Art Nouveau master transformed a young woman into a vision of Ceres, the goddess of agricultural fertility. With flowers adorning her flowing locks and a bevy of scythes and wheat stalks dancing across her gown, the vision is mesmerizing. He even weaves the initials LU into the flowing gold border swinging into the image at the right. The image helped to immortalize the brand forever.

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The Belle Epoque Outside Paris

The poster slowly took hold in other countries in the 1880s, but quickened during the Belle Epoque. In each country, the poster came to the fore to celebrate the society's unique cultural institutions. In France, the cult of the café (including absinthe and other alcoholic products) was omnipresent; in Italy the opera and fashion; in Spain the bullfight and festivals; in Holland literature and products for the home; in Germany trade fairs and magazines, in Britain and America literary journals and the circus.

The first poster shows were held in Great Britain and Italy in 1894, Germany in 1896, and Russia in 1897. The most important poster show ever, to many observers, was held in Reims, France in 1896 and featured an unbelievable 1,690 posters arranged by country.

Despite cross-pollination, distinctive national styles became more apparent as the Belle Epoque progressed. Dutch posters were marked by restraint and orderliness; Italian posters by their drama and grand scale; German posters for their directness and medievalism. The all-powerful influence of France had found a counterbalance.

Artist Unknown
Magazzini Nazionale Tessuti Mode Confezioni, 1905

Leyendecker, Joseph
The Century August Midsummer Holiday Number, 1896
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The New Century

Art Nouveau continued after the turn of the century, although it lost much of its dynamism through sheer imitation and repetition. The death of Toulouse-Lautrec in 1901 and the abandonment of poster art by Mucha and Cheret (who both turned to painting) left a void in France in the new century.The void was filled by a young Italian caricaturist named Leonetto Cappiello, who arrived in Paris in 1898.

Strongly influenced by Cheret and Toulouse-Lautrec, Cappiello rejected the fussy detail of Art Nouveau. Instead he focused on creating one simple image, often humorous or bizarre, which would immediately capture the viewer's attention and imagination on a busy boulevard. His 1906 Maurin Quina absinthe poster, a mischievous green devil on a black background with simple block lettering, marked the maturation of a style that would dominate Parisian poster art until Cassandre's first Art Deco poster in 1923. This ability to create a brand identity established Cappiello as the father of modern advertising.

Meanwhile, artists working in Scotland's Glasgow School, Austria's Vienna Secession, and Germany's Deutscher Werkbund also were transforming Art Nouveau's organic approach. These schools rejected curvilinear ornamentation in favor of a rectilinear and geometric structure based on functionalism.

A key outgrowth of these modernist efforts was the German Plakatstil, or Poster Style, which was begun in 1905 by Lucien Bernhard in Berlin and in Munich by Ludwig Hohlwein. For a poster competition sponsored by Preister matches Bernhard took the novel approach of drawing two large matches and writing the brand name above them in clean, bold letters. The stark simplicity of the design won him the competition. Bernhard's minimalized naturalism and emphasis on flat colors and shapes made his work the next step towards creating an abstract - and modern - visual language.

Cappiello, Leonetto
Cachou Lajaunie (1900), 1900

Note: A breath mint is the excuse for one of Cappiello’s most playful images. A fashionable young woman enjoys a smoke and prepares to chase it with a mint from the venerable yellow tin (the product has survived for a century). But the image is truly made unforgettable by the woman’s fantastic dress of yellow, red and green petals, which is set off against a deep forest background. As always, Cappiello startles us – thereby capturing our attention.

Artist Unknown
Venedig In Wien (Venice in Vienna) - Die Flache II , 1908

Bernhard, Lucian
Breisgau-Perle, 1914

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World War I and the Bolshevik Revolution

World War I meant a new role for the poster: propaganda. Indeed, the war ushered in the biggest advertising campaign to date, critical to the wartime communication needs of every combatant: from raising money, recruiting soldiers and boosting volunteer efforts, to spurring production and provoking outrage at enemy atrocities. America alone produced about 2,500 poster designs and approximately 20 million posters - nearly 1 for every 4 citizens - in little more than 2 years.

The lessons of brilliant American advertising in WWI were not lost on the Bolsheviks, who turned to poster art to help win their civil war against the Whites. Lenin and his followers proved to be the pioneering masters of modern propaganda, and the poster became a weapon which would be used throughout the century in both hot and cold wars everywhere.

Verrees, J. Paul
Join the Air Service and Serve in France, 1917

Note: Verrees' image of a diving American biplane is one of the most beautiful of all American posters in World War I. Its romanticism helped to ensure that the Air Service (forerunner of the Air Force) had no shortage of volunteers - about 38,000.

Unfortunately, America was so ill-equipped to produce planes that only 200 Liberty planes were used in the war effort. They were so slow and unmaneuverable that they were dubbed "flaming coffins" by their pilots. About 1200 American aviators served at the front by war's end, but the Air Service was the most notable failure of the American war effort, providing little support to the Allies.

Moor, Dimitri
Be on Guard!, 1921

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Between the World Wars: Modernism and Art Deco

After World War I, Art Nouveau's organic inspiration seemed irrelevant in an increasingly industrial society. The new realities were better expressed in the modern art movements of Cubism, Futurism, Dada and Expressionism, all of which would have a profound influence on graphic design.

In the Soviet Union, the Constructivist movement took hold in the '20s with the goal of creating a new technological society. Building on Kasimir Malevich's Suprematist movement (the Russian outgrowth of Cubo-Futurism), the Constructivists developed an "agitational" style of composition, marked by strong diagonals, photomontage and color. Led by El Lissitsky, Alexander Rodchenko, Gustav Klutsis, and the Stenberg Brothers, the Constructivists' work would have a major impact on Western design, primarily through the Bauhaus and the de Stijl movement.

This scientific language of design was popularized in a new international decorative movement called Art Deco. In this machine age style, power and speed became the primary themes. Shapes were simplified and streamlined, and curved letterforms were replaced by sleek, angular ones. Art Deco showed a wide variety of graphic influences, from the modern art movements of Cubism, Futurism and Dada; to the design advances of the Vienna Secession, Plakatstil, and the Russian Constructivists; to the exotic art of Persia, Egypt, and Africa.

The term Art Deco is derived from the "Decorative Arts" Exposition of 1925 in Paris, which proved to be a spectacular showcase for the style. In Paris, the caricature style of Cappiello gave way to the geometric, intellectual images of A.M. Cassandre, who popularized air brush techniques that lent a machine - like surface to his images. His towering posters of the Normandie, Statendam and Atlantique ocean liners became icons of the Industrial Age.

Art Deco, like Art Nouveau before it, spread quickly throughout Europe. Artists of note included Federico Seneca and Giuseppe Riccobaldi in Italy, Ludwig Hohlwein in Germany, Pieter Hofman in Holland, Otto Morach and Herbert Matter in Switzerland, E. McKnight Kauffer in England, and Francisco Gali in Spain.

Stenberg, Vladimir and Gyorgy
Open Subscription to the Journal New World (Novymir), 1926

Note: In this masterful poster by the Stenberg brothers done in the 'agitational' advertising style of the NEP period, a phalanx of workers, soldiers and businessmen advance in a powerful diagonal, reading the current issue of New World.

New World (Novy Mir) magazine was the prime literary journal of the Soviet regime. It later became the organ of the Union of Soviet Writers and during the liberalization under Khrushchev published Solzhenitsyn's first short novel. Founded in 1925, it featured stories by the greatest approved writers of the day, including Maxim Gorky, Alexei Tolstoy, and Mikhail Sholokhov. It also contained articles of general interest on art, politics and science as well as poems and reviews.

This poster belongs to the period of the New Economic Plan (NEP), when some forms of capitalism were briefly restored in the USSR. In 1921, faced with universal economic collapse, Lenin retreated from his attempt to turn Russia overnight into a communist society and allowed some forms of private enterprise to function.

Cassandre, A. M.
New Statendam For Real Comfort Holland-America Line, 1929

This dramatic poster by Cassandre is the perfect expression of the Art Deco style. Power and speed are the message of the streamlined, geometric design of ventilation cowls and smoke stacks. Even the wavy smoke trail evokes the rhythmic, abstract designs of the Jazz Age.

Cassandre burst on the Paris scene in the mid-‘20s and was soon recognized as the father of a new, Machine Age poster style. Strongly influenced by modern art developments in Paris, his posters shocked the public with their dynamic spatial arrangements and abstract geometry. His travel posters for the Normandie, Étoile du Nord and Nord Express, all created in the late ‘20s and early ‘30s, are among the most recognized posters ever. In 1936 he was honored with a one-man show at the Museum of Modern Art.

Favre, G.
Dilecta Cycles, c. 1930.

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World War II and the End of Stone Lithography

The poster again played a large communication role in World War II, but this time it shared the spotlight with other media, mainly radio and print. By this time, most posters were printed using the mass production technique of photo offset, which resulted in the familiar dot pattern seen in newspapers and magazines. The use of photography in posters, begun in the Soviet Union in the twenties, now became as common as illustration. After the war, the poster declined further in most countries as television became an additional competitor.

The last gasp of the classic age of the lithographic poster occurred in Switzerland, where the government heavily promoted the printing industry and poster excellence. The establishment of a standard poster size and national kiosk system in 1914 was an additional aid.

Appealing to the Swiss sense of precision, the style which developed during WWII and the early fifities in Basel was the Sachplakat, or Object Poster Style. Delighting in making everyday objects into giant icons, its roots go back to the Plakatstil of Lucian Bernhard and the Surrealist movement. The style depended on spectacular Swiss printing to create its wonderful trompe l'oeil effects. Visual elegance was often matched by gentle humor. With the end of lithographic printing in the '50s, Leupin, Brun and the other Basel Sachplakat artists turned to a humorous style less reliant upon the rich color and textures of lithographic printing.

Birkhauser, Peter
Permastyff - The collar with the durable shirt, 1943

Birkhauser, Peter
Radio Paillard, 1945

Leupin, Herbert
Eptinger (Bubbles), 1945

Muller-Brockmann, Josef
Musica Viva - January 6, 1961, 1961

Hofmann, Armin
Tell, 1963

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The Rise of the Postwar Information Age

Switzerland's dominance of the poster field continued to grow in the late fifties with the development of a new graphic style that had roots in the Bauhaus. Because of its strong reliance on typographic elements in black and white, the new style came to be known as the International Typographic Style. Refined at design schools in Zurich and Basel, the style utilized a mathematical grid, strict graphic rules and black and white photography to provide a clear and logical structure. It became the predominant graphic design style in the world in the '70s, and continues to exert its influence today.

The new style was perfectly suited to the increasingly global postwar marketplace. The Swiss language problem (three major languages in a small country) became a world-wide problem, and there was a strong need for clarity in word and symbol. Corporations needed international identification, and global events such as the Olympics called for universal solutions which the Typographic Style could provide.

At the same time, a more relaxed and intuitive approach took hold in several countries, most notably the U.S. and Poland. Philip Meggs uses the umbrella term Conceptual Image to describe a new illustration style, one which borrowed freely from Surrealism, Pop Art and Expressionism. A famous example was Milton Glaser's 1967 Bob Dylan record album insert. Glaser crystallized the musician's countercultural message by portraying his long hair as a rainbow of richly flowing waves. (Glaser's poster would anticipate a brief but spectacular psychedelic poster craze in the U.S., which recalled the floral excesses of Art Nouveau, the pulsating afterimages of Op-Art, and the bizarre juxtapositions of Surrealism).

Glaser's Push Pin Studio was matched in creativity by a dynamic school of poster art in Poland from the '50s through the '80s. The Polish School became known for a sardonic and gut wrenching variety of Surrealism in promoting the State-controlled theatre and cultural organizations. Other masters of the Conceptual Image include Armando Testa of Italy, Gunter Rambow of Germany, and Nicolas Troxler of Switzerland.

Glaser, Milton
Bob Dylan record album insert, 1967'>Bob Dylan record album insert, 1967

Troxler, Niklaus
McCoy Tyner, 1980

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Post-Modernism and the Computer Age

The International Typographic Style began to lose its energy in the '70s and early '80s. Many criticized it for being cold, formal and dogmatic. A young teacher in Basel named Wolfgang Weingart led the palace revolt which ushered in today's predominant graphic style loosely known as Post-Modern design. Weingart experimented with the offset printing process to produce posters that appeared complex and chaotic, playful and spontaneous - all in stark contrast to his elders' teachings. Weingart's liberation of typography was an important foundation for several new styles, from Memphis and Retro, to the advances now being made in computer graphics.

The role and appearance of the poster has changed continuously over the past century to meet the changing needs of society. Although its role is less central than it was 100 years ago, the poster will evolve further as the computer and the worldwide web revolutionize the way we communicate in the 21st century.

Weingart, Wolfgang
Schreibkunst, 1981

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Source: International Poster Gallery

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If you enjoyed this article, check out this other article about poster history: Poster History.

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here's the first one, zodiac. the coloring book is art nouveau figurative designs by alphonse marie mucha, 37 renderings by ed sibbett, jr. mine is colored with prismacolor tria markers.

gismonda

moet & chandon, cremant imperial

savonnerie de bagnolet

job

When I first saw this picture, I was struck by several aspects of it.  It's called "Morning Star" and it was done by the Art Nouveau artist Alphonse Mucha.  I love this particular period in art history because it went back to the symbolism and representative nature of earlier periods, but it had a graceful style that reflected a changing society.

Interestingly, when I first became acquainted with Mucha's work I was taken in by its rich textures and interesting movement.  But oddly enough, I didn't actually see the picture the way it is, I saw something else.  If you notice the fabric that drapes over the woman's left shoulder (her left, your right); well, when I first saw this, I thought she was holding a book.

Blame it on my age and eyesight, but seriously, I though she was reading.  To me, in the context of the other elements of the picture, it made sense.  The picture spoke of wisdom, of insight, and of knowledge gained through ones own efforts.  The beams of light that shine from her head represented the literal light of knowledge.  The growing light that starts on the lower right of the painting is the growing awareness of new information.

Okay, yes, I incorrectly interpreted the image. One of the beautiful things about art and literature is that it is open to interpretation, and that even if you don't get it exactly the way the artist or author intended, if you get something meaningful from the consideration of the work, the work has served its purpose.

There are other Mucha paintings that I haveenjoyed over time.  He has become one of my favorite artists, though his name is not as well known as others of his time period.  Certainly Erte' and Tiffany (both of whom began in the Art Nouveau period) are better known, but known more for their Art Deco work. But I'm drawn to Mucha, and to this picture in particular.  It is most probably because I didn't see it clearly the first time, because my deteriorating eyesight led to my misinterpretation.

Nonetheless, Mucha's work, and this picture in particular, have become favorites of mine.  In fact, I have a design idea based on this picture, and on my misinterpretation, that is the basis of the next (and final) tattoo that I want to get. 

I'm in no rush to do it, but when I do, I'll post pictures of it here. 

Until then, I'll just continue to enjoy and possibly misinterpret this, and other artists, and expanding my own attainment of knowledge.