Manifesti e Grafica Pubblicitaria d’Autore del XX secolo

The artistic advertising manifesto was born in France in the second half of the 1800s during the industrial revolution. The agricultural society was becoming mechanized; new products and inventions were introduced which led to the need of the “afficheur", those artists able to promote new business through their art. Jules Chèret is considered to be the father of the advertising manifesto, the first one to understand how to properly use chromolithography, creating new colors by overlapping them. Alois Senefelder invented lithography in the late 1700s but colors arrived in 1850. It was understood that a colored advertising manifesto would have caught the attention even of a distracted passerby. Here on the table we have 2 examples created by the Italian artist Leonetto Cappiello. The blue one, created in 1902, is a very precious and important manifesto. The second one, “Cognac Pellisson” (1920), is less precious but more important because of the “black background". This technique brings out the colors and it has become the distinctive mark of the artist. Leaving the Italian advertising manifesto we can observe the works of the Belgian Privet-Livemont, one of the most talented artists of the “Belle Epoque". Due to the absence of a phrase this doesn't look like an advertising manifesto. The creation of an advertising manifesto happened following various steps in different phases, with the placement of many lithographic stones; you're looking at the manifesto before the inclusion of a phrase that in this case was “Cacao Van Houten” which means “hot chocolate". What really makes this manifest a precious piece is the artist inscription with the authentic sign and date.