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BLAISE BRON (1918 - ?)
158 • MOBILOIL. 1952.
50x35
1
/
4
inches, 127x89
1
/
2
cm.
Condition A: minor restoration at edges.
It is impossible to look at this image without seeing a resemblance to Roy Lichtenstein’s early graphic
work. However, this poster precedes Lichtenstein’s first Pop Art creations by nearly ten years. What
gives one pause to call this poster a mere coincidental precursor is the use of Ben Day-like dots to form
the background, a device Lichtenstein used as a major element in his early, classic period. The influ-
ence of hyper-real Swiss posters from the late 1930s until 1960 on many Pop artists is a given, but no
poster relates so closely to specific Pop Art as this one for the design-conscious Mobil Corporation.
Very little biographical information exists on this artist. Another poster of his for Mobil Oil appears in
the 1952
International Poster Annual
. Also, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, he designed a few
posters for fairs around Switzerland. This poster is a proto-Pop masterpiece that stands as an excep-
tional vanguard to the Pop movement of the 1960s.
[10,000/15,000]