Page 57 - Swann Galleries - Modernist Posters - Sale 2314 - May 13, 2013

ROBERT BONFILS (1886-1972)
65 ● PARIS - 1925 / EXPOSITION INTERNATIONALE DES ARTS DÉCORATIFS ET
INDUSTRIELS MODERNES. 1925.
23x15 inches, 581 /2 x38 cm. Vaugirard, Paris.
Condition B+: repaired tears, restored losses, abrasions and restoration in margins and image; minor
discoloration along bottom edge; repaired pin holes in upper corners. Matted and framed.
Each poster for the exhibition was printed in two different sizes. This is the smaller format. The image
was also used on the cover of the exhibition catalogue. Weill 316. [3,000/4,000]
ANDRÉ GIRARD (1901-1968)
66 ● EXPOSITION INTERNATIONALE DES ARTS DÉCORATIFS ET INDUSTRIELS
MODERNES. 1925.
231/2x15 1/2 inches, 59 3/4 x391/2 cm. Les Editions de l’Image de France, Paris.
Condition B+ / B: repaired tears, restoration and discoloration at edges; creases and abrasions in margins
and image; repaired pin holes in corners.
This is the rarest of the four posters that were commissioned for the seminal Exposition Internationale
de Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes. Similar to its use of smoking chimneys in the poster designed
by Charles Loupot for the same exhibition, Girard’s image has a much stronger and more dynamic
layout. The smokestacks rise in a pyramid that visually echoes the seething mass of men who are
scrambling to get to the top of their own pyramid. At the pinnacle one man holds aloft a chalice,
perhaps meant to indicate a form of perfection toward which all are striving. As with the other three
posters designed for the exhibition, colors are kept to a minimum. THIS IS THE SCARCE SMALLER FORMAT
Girard np. [2,000/3,000]
65 66