lithographers famous 21st century fine art

It was invented in 1798 by a Bavarian actor and playwright, Alois Senefelder, to reproduce his scripts. Jules Chéret’s first major poster commission was this one for Jacques Offenbach for his 1858 production of “Orpheus in the Underworld.” Lithography Chéret is widely known as the father of the modern poster, and it is in his footsteps that the rest of the major artists in the Driehaus Museum exhibition, L’Affichomania: The Passion for French Posters, followed. There are a number of factors: the rise of the middle class in Paris with more expendable income for collecting, advances in technology that allowed for larger and more complex poster designs, a multicultural milieu with artists of all types mingling and sharing ideas in Paris’s bohemian neighborhoods, a city redesign that included street furniture designed specifically for posters, and more.īut one of the central factors is the reinvention of lithography, the process by which many posters were made before they became fine art.Īnd Jules Chéret is the one who reinvented it. It became the passion of a group of aficionados who avidly collected these posters, preserving them from the short life cycle of ephemera. It transformed the gray urban commute into a pleasurable stroll punctuated by cheerful color. The poster transcended its role as attention-getting carrier of practical information. Images were added to grab a viewer’s attention.Īnd then a turning point came in the 19th century in Paris. Typefaces got a little more interesting-larger, more decorative.

But as time passed and technology advanced, the broadside evolved. A Turning Pointīroadsides were an ephemeral form-easily printed, distributed for quick impact, read for the information they contained, and then tossed away. A broadside from the 1800s, showing addition of a single color and illustrations to highlight the informational text.

Lithographers famous 21st century fine art