Joana_POST.9

RAYMOND SAVIGNAC

"Reading a poster must be instantaneous. In a fraction of a second, the man in the street must be able to understand it. Poster art is the creation of a fleeting image which people will not forget."

The artist Raymond Savignac designed over 600 advertising posters and helped usher in a new age of optimism and consumerism in France after the end of the Second World War. His colourful and witty images for products such as Monsavon soap, Gitanes cigarettes, SNCF railways, Bic razors, Air France and Citroën cars came to embody the very idea of France to many foreigners.
Over a fruitful career lasting 50 years, Savignac was an advocate of the "less is more" approach, his work is distinguished by a humorous simplicity.

Often just abbreviated to "Savignac", he was born on November 6, 1907 in Paris, and died on October 31, 2002 in Trouville-sur-Mer (Calvados), aged 94. 

Always immacutely dressed, Savignac was a committed environmentalist; he also railed against modern-day advertising techniques and their over-reliance on photographs rather than the broad, brash strokes he had pioneered. In an interview with Le Monde newspaper in 1996, he called himself,

an old brontosaurus who does a job that no longer exists for a species that's well on its way to extinction.

His art reflects the special place cleverly drawn posters have occupied in France from the time of Toulouse-Lautrec.
He apprenticed with the great A. M. Cassandre, but instead of glorifying the merchandise, as Cassandre did, Mr. Savignac made gentle fun of what was being sold.
He said his intellectual inspiration was Charlie Chaplin and the other slapstick comedians, and he came to criticize present-day advertising for its lack of humor. Photography -- not to mention today's bewildering proliferation of media and messages -- seemed to have overwhelmed the sharp artistic vision he shared with contemporary French poster artists.

"A poster creates the illusion if not of happiness, then at least of comfort and ease, It is optimism at its most absurd -- no more indigestion, no more floating kidneys, no more unrequited love.''

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Savignac

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/raymond-savignac-601006.html

http://www.art.com/gallery/id--a9114/raymond-savignac-posters.htm

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/01/arts/raymond-savignac-94-french-poster-artist.html

http://www.posterclassics.com/i2/Savignac-posters.html