Poster and theatre designer, lithographer, painter and creator of typefaces, Cassandre, one of the greatest commercial artists of this century, was born in the Ukraine in 1901 and lived for almost 80 years. A friend of Balthus and De Chirico, whose art he deeply admired, he reconciled the ideas of such contemporary avant-garde movements as Cubism, Surrealism and Neue Sachlichkeit, with the demands of commercial art.
Today, Cassandre’s posters are avidly collected by individuals and museums. Since the primary purpose of a poster is to generate consumer interest, it is rare to find mint examples - most of them were intended as temporary displays to be posted on kiosks and walls, or to be hung in the offices of travel agents or transport companies. Happily, the illustrations in this volume reproduce perfect impressions of his finest posters, including the celebrated Dubonnet piece, the Normandie poster and the ones for Pathé records and the Etoile du Nord train.
Cassandre’s unerring graphic sensibility was expressed in a brilliant manipulation of typography and image. With extraordinary imagination he transformed mechanistic elements into components of an almost classical grandeur. He also had a splendid colour sense.
This study - written by his son Henri Mouron - is the first to deal with Cassandre’s unique achievement. With almost 400 illustrations, including work for the theatre and for the great typesetters of the time, as well as his posters, it is a fascinating insight into the world of commercial art, and an indispensable tool for those interested in the applied arts and advertising.
With 398 illustrations, 90 in colour