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French Placard and Decorative
Graphic Arts of the End of the 19th - Beginning of the 20th Centuries
From January 2010 a temporary French Placard and Decorative Graphic Arts
of the End of the 19th - Beginning of the 20th Centuries exhibition from
the collection of the State Hermitage is presented at the Winter Palace
(the Court Gallery, 2nd Floor). Various examples of printed graphic arts
(placards, covers and prints) are united by typological resemblance: a print
is not comprehended as an independent work but as a functional work
designed, among others, to serve as decoration of publication, interior
or urban environment. It is not by chance that the most part of the exhibits
dates back to 1890s - the epoch characterized by aspiration for aestheticization
of everyday life and living space.
It is customary to connect the origin of placard with the name of Jules
Cheret. From the end of 1860-s on regular basis he was printing large-size
coloured prints advertising exhibitions, performances, theatres, places
of entertainment (by Russian tradition such placards are indicated by the term
'poster' (afisha)) or manufactured goods. One cannot say that
until that moment there were no placards in principle (its prototypes
were found already in the 15th century), but its modern character was
formed thanks to Cheret. The artist combined new features, which had been
gradually appearing in advertising graphic arts of the middle of the century
(extension of sizes, emphasis on colour and monumentality of perception),
in a complete form that became canonical owing to constant repetition.
Coloured lithography technique (with frequent substitution of stone with zinc
plate that made large-scale works significantly easier), which Cheret
mastered brilliantly, made it possible to make copies of advertising materials.
In many respects thanks to Cheret placard, which earlier used to be more
a lot of masters-artisans, gained status of independent art and started
to attract prominent artists. As opposed to his predecessors, who used
popular print and caricature devices, Cheret appealed to aesthetics of the 18th century
(Boucher, Tiepolo, Fragonard). Paradoxically such passeism
made it possible to create a foundation for further avant-garde achievements.
Lighten up by tradition placard moves up to the rank of high acknowledged
art from the rank of artistic marginalia. By the end of the century its
popularity reaches its peak. Placards are collected, exhibited; luxuriously
illustrated publications are dedicated to them. Lovers of prints are ready
to take down pasted sheets under the cover of night just to add them to their collection.
Placard becomes the most powerful means of visual influence in creative
works of Cheret, Mucha, Steinlen, Toulouse-Lautrec. Advertising function
is realized due to its decorative features. Placard attracts and convinces
by expressiveness of composition, boldness of drawing, effectiveness of colouring, -
and only then it informs and specifies details. It is significant
that an inscription, obligatory for any complete work of such type, conforms
to image stylistics and becomes its integral visual component. Print changes
constantly; first the emphasis is on artificiality, then on text regularity,
its position on the flat and in space, its connection with the image.
In the advertisement of cigarette paper Mucha repeats the word 'JOB' four
times (which is obviously redundant if one should consider it only as a carrier
of information) and eventually he turns it into an ornamental
motif for the 'Byzantinisming' background. In Japanese Sette (Divan Japonais)
Toulouse-Lautrec delicately uses similarity of letters and graphic signs
with good effect, making them exchange their visual characteristics -
the print somewhat 'revives' while laconically reproduced figures incline
to hieroglyph. Black gloves of the singer - Yvette Guilbert - performing
on stage draw letter 'Y', the first letter of her name, which remains
unnamed just like her face that is left outside the image frames.
At the same time it is the specific limitations that also make for advertising
tasks. Placard is directed towards mass audience and should consider its tastes
and preferences. Hence there is disposition to repetition, to formation
of settled cliche, inclination to entertaining nature and kitsch that
distinguish not only second-rate artists (such as Pean, Lourdes or Damare)
but also recognized maitres - Cheret and Mucha. If from the point of view
of 'high art' these are unquestionable shortcomings, then from a position
of functionality, these are almost advantages. Quite natural that artist
reproduces stylistics and picturesqueness that won success with public
and, accordingly, ensure attractiveness of the placard. In order to avoid
stereotypes it is necessary to possess artistic skills and aristocratism
of Toulouse-Lautrec.
Combination of functionality and ornamentality is also typical of book
and album covers. This type of printed graphic arts is represented by splendid
works of Lautrec, where the form of the spread itself is used
in a witty way by setting sequence of perception (face and back).
At the turn of the century prints, specially designed for interior decoration
like production analogue of pictorial panels, also become widespread.
Among them there is a series by Eugene Grasset, one of the leading masters
of Art Nouveau style in its discreet, oriented towards tradition version.
Picture format hints at its supposed location in the interior: elongated
horizontal - sopraportas, vertical - framing for doors or windows, square
- decorative 'insets' on the spare flat of the wall. Prints by Grasset
are of allegorical character: each of them incarnates a certain feature
of mind or emotional state, which correspond to a flower or a plant. So far
it remains unclear whether any specific literary or emblematical source
is the basis of the series.
The exhibition is prepared by Mikhail Balan, the curator of French engravings
of the 19th - 20th centuries of the Department of Western European Art
of the State Hermitage.
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At the exhibition French Placard and Decorative
Graphic Arts of the End of the 19th - Beginning of the 20th Centuries
First Visitors
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