Date: 1937
Size: 10.25 x 15.5 inches
Artist: Jean Carlu
The history of World's Fairs is directly linked to the major developments in industry, technology, arts and design since the mid 19th century. Before the era of mass media communication, World's Fairs were the foremost method of international information-sharing regarding the advancements of society in industry, science and the arts. Paris has always been a major hub for such happenings - it has hosted some of the first and most remarkable fairs in history, events that have shaped entire industries on a international scale. The 1937 fair was one such important event - erected under the theme of Arts and Techniques in Modern Life, the expo is best remembered for the heavy political climate that reigned over it, especially due to the ideologically blunt confrontation of the Soviet and German pavillions."
After eight years of turbulent preparation, the last world exhibition to take place in Paris opened on May 25th 1937, under the shadow of the growing power of European dictatorships, whose pompous architecture was on display there. In particular, the confrontation of the pavilion of Nazi Germany with that of the Soviet Union – both characterised by a stiff monumentalism – were in direct opposition to the aim of the exhibition, which was to encourage peaceful co-existence and co-operation among nations. Other buildings, such as the Pavilion of Flight with its dynamic planes and the emphatically down-to-earth Spanish pavilion, in which Picasso’s protest painting “Guernica” hung, presented a modern concept of architecture which contrasted sharply with the gesticulating of the two dictatorships." (expo2000.de)
About the Artist: Jean Carlu started his career as a professional poster-designer in 1919, after a competition by a producer of dental aids in 1918. From 1919 until 1921 he served as an illustrator, after which he worked at an agency that designed advertisements. In that period he designed his first poster in Art Deco style .. he was attracted by cubism and was one of the first who realized that to fix a trademark in the minds of consumers, a process needs to be gone through in which schematic forms and expressive colours are applied. These are the characteristics that give his posters and other works their distinguishable quality.