Date: 1937
Size: 9.75 x 11.75 inches
Artist: Cassandre, Adolphe Mouron
Information: For more details, please call 514 656 3301
About The Artist: A.M. Cassandre was a painter, commercial poster artist, typeface designer, and stage designer. Born in 1901 in Charkov, Ukraine, Cassandre went to Paris in 1915, studying painting at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and the Academie Julian. For a whole he worked as a student at the Hachard & Co. press. In the 1920s A.M. Cassandre belonged to avant-garde circles and had many well-known friends in artistic, musical and social circles. A.M. Cassandre earned a reputation as the designer of bold, stringently geometric posters in the Art deco style. A.M. Cassandre received his first commission for a large poster from the Paris furniture store Au Bucheron in 1923. He designed hundreds of posters - many of them, like this one, classics in the language of Art Deco design and decor. Cassandre designed posters in a stringently constructive formal language that pays obvious tribute to the power of the machine and shows influences of Cubism and other Art Deco artists who were working in Paris at the time. Cassandre also developed typefaces and taught at the Ecole des Arts Decoratifs. He had his own art school until 1935. Between 1936 and 1939 Cassandre lived in New York, where he freelanced as a commercial artist. In 1939 Cassandre returned to Paris, were he continued to work as a graphic designer. In 1963 Cassandre designed the Yves Saint Laurent monogram. His private life was hectic and often unhappy. He had unsuccessfully attempted suicide before his final successful attempt in 1968.
These posters were commissioned by Fortune Magazine and were one of the first commissions produced by Cassandre specifically for the American market. The posters illustrate the style for which Cassandre is best known - clean, precise and never using more detail than is necessary. 4 pages/posters, reversible pages.