?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 3,500 - $ 4,500
JEAN CARLU (1900-1997) LA DETTE. 1931. 77x49 1/8 inches. H. Chachoin, Paris. Condition B+: vertical and horizontal folds. Amongst the four great French graphic designers of the 1930s (Cassandre, Colin and Loupot), Carlu was notably the only one to be politically left-wing, and the first to use photography in poster design. Carlu was one of the founders of "L'Office de Propagande Pour la Paix" (the Office of Propaganda for Peace); his poster "La Dette" (The Debt), which was the department's first production, was for a lottery that benefited veterans with facial injuries. Definitely not a charming image, Carlu's poster nevertheless depicts its subject in an honest, impacting fashion. His insistence on the very strict, geometric use of typography and the photograph of the destroyed face with a clear title and the information along the bottom, leaves no mistake as to the poster's message. To save money on printing, only two colors were used with a clever gradation of the orange employed to give the appearance of more color. An important document, as well as the only copy known in this large size. Carlu 30.
