Hello Poster Fans !! and blog addicts….
Where have I been ? I know you are asking !
Well …….. I have been here all the time scoping out items of poster interest. The main problem was that my computer broke, the kids were devastated so finally on Sunday night I have my chance.
Quickly :
I am planning a sale of French posters : I have two on Ebay right now with a 99p start
I visited Belgium again and found a couple of classic railway posters in the local chocolate and beer shop
I have completed the purchase of my most expensive purchase to date
But the main thing that I wanted to blog was about two poster related biographies on for E McKnight Kauffer and one for Tom Purvis.
A Designer and His Public : the Kauffer bio by Mark Haworth-Booth is the kind of art history book usually reserved for one of the Grand Masters, he explains about the artists influences, his London Group, his Van Gough inflience. The Jazz age, major exhibitions in London and New York ….. all the way through to his enforced exodus from Britain to his unhappy drunken end.
The names dropped here are remarkable : John Betjeman, Francis Bacon, Arnold Bennet, Benjamin Brittain, William Morris Seigfreid Sassoon Man Rayand many more are featured.
To say that Kauffer was considered a genius of poster art but that opinion was confined to Britain sums things up perfectly.
On the other hand Tom Purvis by Ruth Artmonsky and David Preston is a down to earth tome. It implies that Kauffer was far superior to Purvis and that Purvis was a ‘jobbing commercial artist’ who’s best work was probably done outside the poster medium. His flat palette output only a part of his capability. It was exceedingly good though !! ……. Again the artists career was truncated by war and he turned to religious art and a secluded retirement at the British seaside.
Some interesting facts about Purvis : he spent some time roaming the countryside with no other than our friend Hans Schleger picking up ideas and making sketches for his posters, he also was the creative force behind that British icon : Blackpool Pleasure Beach for over a decade.
Overall its the Flamboyant American against the Bluff Englishman, an interesting juxtaposition !!