ADOLPHE MOURON CASSANDRE (1901-1968) MINIWATT / PHILIPS RADIO. 1931. 22 1/2x15 inches, 57 1/4x38 cm. Alliance Graphique, Paris. Condition A- / B+: repaired tears and restoration at edges; minor abrasions in margins and image. One of Cassandre's few forays into the realm of Sachs Plakat, Object Posters (or as his son refers to them, "ideograms"). What differentiates this image from Object Posters designed by Swiss artists is Cassandre's airbrush treatment of the light and shadows; the tube is darker on the side with the lighter colored background and lighter on the side with darker background. The typography, which crosses the image, bears Cassandre's signature stylistic of being outlined within the confines of the bulb itself. "The primary virtue of the IDEOGRAM is to be precise and clear . . . by overturning the established order and scale of things to create a fictive counterreality that is more explicit than reality itself, it becomes a poetic object in its own right" (Mouron p. 74). This is the smallest of three formats. Mouron pl. 32, Suntory 25, Brown & Reinhold 33, Cassandre / Weill p. 53.
