Paris Through The Eyes of Mucha— Posters of an Age

Sakai City Cultural Hall

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Riding a wave of modernism, Paris at the end of the 19th century was awash in both people and goods, and the posters developed amid the rise of the printing arts were of great importance for their ability to sell merchandise. These posters often portrayed the hopes and dreams of the age, which coexisted with political unrest and disparities in wealth. Early in the 20th century, as war-torn Europe sought order, stability, and logic, the outstanding poster designs of Paris turned away from the flowery and ornate and toward the solid and retrained. The posters seen in the streets of both eras reflected the fortunes of the city and the voices of its people, and poster designers such as Alphonse Mucha paid close attention to the modes and mechanisms of society, expressing them in their art.

[Image: Alfonse Mucha “Gaufrettes Label: Lefevre-Utile” (1899) lithograph, paper, Sakai City Collection]