CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 2/14/2015

Sweets for the Sweet

In his introduction to Posters: Irony, Imagination and Eroticism in Advertising 1895-1960, Dario Cimorelli quotes the legendary Italian illustrator Gino Boccasile: "Through a few telling images, I seek to offer pleasant and amusing stories to the public, trying not to forget that it loves indulging in its own fantasies, beyond what might be suggested by the lines and colors it is most drawn to. Posters are short-lived, considering the dazzling speed at which these works overlap and alternate on city walls, gradually effacing one another. Yet posters can become extremely long-lived, if they manage to strike the viewer's attention in precisely the right manner. We are working to come into the limelight in a way that allows no encores or appeals. Either we conquer the public at first glance or are better off giving up." Featured poster, by an unknown artist circa 1950, is reproduced from this treasure trove of early twentieth century Italian advertising posters.