THE GLAMOUR OF THE ROARING TWENTIES IN ART DECO POSTERS
The exhibition dedicated to Art Deco held at the San Domenico Museums in Forlì, entitled "Art Deco, the Roaring Twenties in Italy, 1919-1930", has recently ended. With a catalogue and an exhibition treated to the very last detail, thanks to a number of significant loans, Forlì revived the glamorous climate of a movement which transversally embraced various forms of the artistic production among the first decade of the Twentieth Century and the end of the Roaring Twenties.
A path that winds through architecture, paintings, decorative arts objects, fashion, and furniture united by the common denominator of a new taste and language, rooted in the instances of the Austro-German Secession movement, passing through rationalism and the return to order, and ending at the same time of the great political and economic world changes which allowed the affirmation of new aesthetic, ideological, and formal values at the beginning of the Thirties.
Within such a complex panorama, Art Deco become spokesman for a taste that is chic and glamorous, and which manifests itself in smartly furnished interiors, sparkling gowns studded with sequins, and in everyday items with an almost maniacal attention to detail, an exasperation of the decorative element always declined according to models which look to the Orient, to primitivism, classicism, and the contemporary.
It is not surprising that there was an excess of these instances in posters, establishing the success of subjects with an incredible visual impact, ranging from the iconic Turandot by Leopoldo Metlicovitz, to the silhouettes of Claude Gadoud and Giuseppe Riccobaldi del Bava, through the "postcards" of Roger Broders and Cassandre, the interiors by Werner Von Axster-Heudtlass and ending with Josephine Baker's fluttering skirts whose unbridled dances were immortalized by Zig.
If we wanted to write a small history of the Deco poster, we could not exclude Marcello Nizzoli who, with his vibrantly colored "still life" works, celebrates Campari, the king of aperitifs and the great protagonist of beau monde evenings at the café tables. Perhaps it was right the Campari who reigned over the Bal de la Maroquinerie of 1929. Elegant gentlemen in evening dress and ladies in their furs, garçonne haircuts and stylized faces advertise Claridge's soirée mondaine in a small, but extremely rare poster, signed by Elie-Anatole Pavil.
Affiches of timeless charm, characterized by a versatility that only a movement such as Art Deco possessed, embracing every aspect of life in those wonderful and overwhelming years which, to the sound of Jazz and Charleston, have become part of the collective imagination as a symbol of an era that was chic and merry, and as excessive and wild as the parties which lit up the nights at Gatsby Mansion.
Aste Bolaffi becomes part of this spirit by dedicating its next appointment with the Twentieth Century Art to a fascinating selection of Art Deco posters from important private collections.
by FRANCESCA BENFANTE
A path that winds through architecture, paintings, decorative arts objects, fashion, and furniture united by the common denominator of a new taste and language, rooted in the instances of the Austro-German Secession movement, passing through rationalism and the return to order, and ending at the same time of the great political and economic world changes which allowed the affirmation of new aesthetic, ideological, and formal values at the beginning of the Thirties.
Within such a complex panorama, Art Deco become spokesman for a taste that is chic and glamorous, and which manifests itself in smartly furnished interiors, sparkling gowns studded with sequins, and in everyday items with an almost maniacal attention to detail, an exasperation of the decorative element always declined according to models which look to the Orient, to primitivism, classicism, and the contemporary.
It is not surprising that there was an excess of these instances in posters, establishing the success of subjects with an incredible visual impact, ranging from the iconic Turandot by Leopoldo Metlicovitz, to the silhouettes of Claude Gadoud and Giuseppe Riccobaldi del Bava, through the "postcards" of Roger Broders and Cassandre, the interiors by Werner Von Axster-Heudtlass and ending with Josephine Baker's fluttering skirts whose unbridled dances were immortalized by Zig.
If we wanted to write a small history of the Deco poster, we could not exclude Marcello Nizzoli who, with his vibrantly colored "still life" works, celebrates Campari, the king of aperitifs and the great protagonist of beau monde evenings at the café tables. Perhaps it was right the Campari who reigned over the Bal de la Maroquinerie of 1929. Elegant gentlemen in evening dress and ladies in their furs, garçonne haircuts and stylized faces advertise Claridge's soirée mondaine in a small, but extremely rare poster, signed by Elie-Anatole Pavil.
Affiches of timeless charm, characterized by a versatility that only a movement such as Art Deco possessed, embracing every aspect of life in those wonderful and overwhelming years which, to the sound of Jazz and Charleston, have become part of the collective imagination as a symbol of an era that was chic and merry, and as excessive and wild as the parties which lit up the nights at Gatsby Mansion.
Aste Bolaffi becomes part of this spirit by dedicating its next appointment with the Twentieth Century Art to a fascinating selection of Art Deco posters from important private collections.
by FRANCESCA BENFANTE