Symbiosis between art and advertising in the origins of poster art

The digital space broke out as a support in the world of advertising, a few decades ago, with the same push that the streets were transformed from the second half of the 19th century into the ideal support for the advertising poster, a format that it would become an exceptional instrument of vindication for many artists. The period from 1860 to the First World War was, without a doubt, the golden age of the commercial poster. And Paris, its neuralgic center from where the main trends emerged and where illustrators and artists ready to succeed internationally arrived. In the French capital, you could breathe art, life and luminosity.

The poster from the end of the 19th century is a great exponent of the hedonic sense of consumption in those years. His effectiveness was based on the aptitude for the spectacular, the charm of the images and personal talent. The artists carried out advertising commissions: poster designs but also labels and calendars, among other supports. In the transition from the 19th century to the 20th, Catalonia experienced with intensity this artistic effervescence applied to the world of advertising. Thus, from a creative point of view, new airs of European Modernism entered which, although with different denominations – Modern Style, Sezession, Liberty, Art Nouveau...–, participated in the same principles and ideals. It was, in short, another way of seeing and interpreting the world in general, and art in particular, with a globalizing look and an ideological and aesthetic openness that pontificated the concept of modernity and that proposed an integrative vision of all artistic manifestations: architecture, sculpture, arts and crafts..., with curved lines as a major identifying element.

In the last years of the 19th century, competitions and exhibitions began to popularize poster art. Brands as illustrious as Anís del Mono, Codorníu and Cigarrillos París were associated with the names of artists of some esteem. In this desire to integrate many artistic expressions, posterism entered Catalonia strongly through two paths: from England, where Alexandre de Riquer had stayed and where he discovered it thanks to the Pre-Raphaelites, and from France, through Ramon Casas with the Paris of light, glamor and modernity.

The poster was, therefore, an unbeatable argument to bring artists closer to the world of advertising. The environment, the circumstances and the conjuncture would favor the success of the art-advertising binomial. Lithographic technology made it possible to make large prints of posters in large formats and in colorful colors. In addition, many of these artists, attracted by the new expressive medium or by the money brought in by advertising – or by both – devoted themselves enthusiastically to the art of the poster, and later to all kinds of advertising designs.

The creative freedom of the poster was much higher than the possibilities offered by the press ads, conditioned to a column and without the possibility of including illustrations. The posters, with few and clearly visible letters, facilitated access to information in a society with a low degree of literacy. However, the truth is that the artists entered the world of advertising without any theoretical basis or knowledge of the sector. They acted freely and spontaneously, but without more or less professional advertising approaches, which explains why these artists gradually disappeared from the advertising horizon, with the exception of magazine cartoonists, who could illustrate both a cartoon and an advertisement.

The development of agencies and the professionalization of advertising activity distanced artists from this sector. The propaganda poster, with political and ideological content, gave new opportunities to the art world. That, however, is another story.