Pushkin Museum showed advertisement posters

The outdoor advertisment posters of the last century are revolutionary not only because of the content but also because of the form – the artistic methods used in posters became the impetus for a revolution in the art in general.

The “Poster mania” exhibition opens with a poster depicting a cabaret dancer. The author, however, is not Henri Toulouse-Lautrec – today the most famous advertiser – but Leonetto Kappiello. In the twenty-first century, this name is not very familiar, but at the beginning of the twentieth century, he was considered the genius of advertising (Lautrec won wide acclaim only after his death). With this poster, made in 1899 for the newspaper Frou-Frou, his fame began, and it is no coincidence that it opens an exhibition of French advertising of the 19th – 20th centuries. Images of spectacular women became the locomotive of advertising progress at the time. The first hall is entirely left to the ladies.

Most of the posters here are created by Jules Cheret – one of the founders of poster advertising. The artist himself was inspired by the art of the past – baroque and rococo, which is easy to read in his images. For this, Edouard Manet called him “modern Watteau.” The technique of color printing Shere was truly revolutionary. He invented splashing on a lithographic stone, with the help of which the impression was made, several colors at once. He did it with a metal brush. “He sprayed paint with color areas, creating the effect of merging and interpenetration of colors. Technique Schere served as an impetus for the development of pointillism”- explains the curator of the exhibition Irina Nikiforova. If you look closely, you can see these small colored dots that make up the overall picture. A similar method in painting was used by Georges Cerat, who was friends with Chery.

Another advertising poster artist is Alphonse Mucha. A native of a small town in South Moravia, he began his career as a theater artist. Then he painted the castle of Count Kuen-Belassi, who, in gratitude, agreed to pay for Mucha’s study at the Julian Academy in Paris. When the count committed suicide, the artist was left without funds and began to earn money by making posters, restaurant menus, invitations, and business cards. By the way, for some time he shared his workshop with Van Gogh.

Alphonse’s life changed in 1894 when he received an order for a poster of the premiere of the Gismond performance with the participation of the great Sarah Bernard. The actress liked the artist’s work so much that soon, at her insistence, he became the main decorator of the Renaissance Theater. For some time they were lovers. Mucha has made many posters for Bernard’s plays. Thanks to the actress, he became the creator of a whole style, full of grace and sensitivity, with the calligraphically executed to the limit. The name of the master of the poster is associated with the flourishing of Art Nouveau. The best posters of Alphonse, many of which depict Sarah Bernard were displayed at the exhibition.

It seems the French see sexuality in everything. Even in advertising bicycles with revolutionary for those days inflatable cameras – the artist Ernest Monto draws a parallel with the female body. These posters are also witnesses of the era – they reflect the emergence of new technologies, be it tires or typewriters. However, not only the femininity rules advertising, but also alcohol. Here everyone drinks – even small children. A peddler of wine can carry 18 bottles in one hand – how is that possible?! And having used the cherry liquor, you will turn into a cross between Pierrot and the hero of Munch’s “The Scream” (as Gustave’s advertisement, Henri Jossau, is convinced of). French advertisers, however, loved not only alcohol and women. Even then, the seals entered the trend. Mimic creations are a great help, for example, to advertise milk: on one of the posters, it is drunk by a girl surrounded by baleen and striped, who climbs to the saucer. And this is not the only example of cats. The exhibition ends with posters of Toulouse-Lautrec.

Looking at the spectacular posters, it is important to notice not only the themes and signs of the times, but the ways of presentation: pure bright colors that became the forerunner of avant-garde art, simplified composition, more readable in comparison with the painting of the beginning of the century plot. The advertising boom demanded a new approach to the image – this revolution captured other forms of art.