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The year 1440 is of special significance in the history of poster making. Prior to this time, the quantity of posters and signs that could be produced was limited to the number that could be painted by hand or printed from hand-cut woodblocks or stencils. With the invention of movable type, the complexion of advertising was changed from a limited output to quantity production. Whereas the exact year of the discovery of movable type will forever remain a matter of dispute among historians and printing authorities, we shall not enter the controversy here. Let us accept 1440 as the year in which Johann Gutenberg revealed to the people of Mainz and to the world at large, the astonishingly simple fact that the various characters of the alphabet could be cut in separate little blocks and spaced together to compose words and sentences. Heretofore, an entire page of reading matter was cut out of and printed from a single woodblock. The block, which took much time and great skill to cut, became useless after the edition for which it was intended was completed. Individual type units comprising the letters of the alphabet, Gutenberg demonstrated, could be re-used and recombined indefinitely. This idea raised printing from the level of an artist's tedious handicraft to the art of a practical commercial process. The introduction of movable type and the subsequent development and improvement in printing presses has an immeasurable effect on culture and civilization, advancing at the same time the technique of poster reproduction. In 1796, with the discovery of the lithographic process by Alois Senefelder, the production of posters in color was further advanced. Though designs could be reproduced in color with handcut wood blocks and stencils, (indeed, many fine examples remain to attest to that art), the lithographic process could do the job better and without the limitations inherent in the stencil of woodblock. Further developments which came about with the introduction of zinc plates, photo offset, three- and four-color process, and so forth, freed poster artists from the remaining technical restrictions as to style, technique and range of colors. Let us turn from out brief historical excursion and recount the evolution of modern poster design through the achievements of the outstanding personalities that helped to shape its development and progress. In 1866, Jules Cheret, an artist and mural painter, returned to Paris from a stay in England, where he had studied lithographic processes. Upon his return, this craftsman set himself up as a designer and printer of posters. He was a self-taught artist who found in Japanese are the secret of good design - flat colors applied with a stencil-like effect, eliminating inconsequentials in the subject matter, and striving chiefly for a pleasing design. The Japanese two-dimensional style influences his sense of design, but for his color inspiration he turned to French Impressionism. The colors on Cheret posters had a spectral purity and vibrancy intensity entirely suitable to the sparkling personality of the theatrical characters he depicted. His subject matter, dealing mainly with the gaieties of Parisan night life in theatres and cafes, was audacious and full of merriment, but never passed the bounds of propriety. Among his earliest designs was a poster made in 1867, announcing the appearance of the immortal Sarah Bernhardt. All in all, he produced more than a thousand poster designs. He was in perfect control of the medium, because he understood the possibilities of the lithographic process and had the facilities for doing his own printing. Cheret posters began to attract attention, not only to the things they advertised, but also to themselves as works of art. All of Paris began to look forward to the next Cheret poster and took a deep pride in these designs that so colorfully decorated the advertising kiosks. By 1880, this new art form had attracted other designers. Alexandra Steinlen and Toulouse-Lautrec followed to a great extent the established pattern of Cheret. The subject matter of their posters was essentially the same-devoted to advertising the night life, frivolity and colorful splendor of the music halls and cabarets of gay Paris. Lautrec, who was perhaps the better draftsman, exerted a tremendous influence on other poster designers. By experimenting with the new poster technique. George Meunier, Pierre Bonnard, Alphone Mucha, Eugene Grasset and Adolphe Willette, stood out from among the rest. |