?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,200 - $ 1,800
MARTON LAJOS (1891-1952) CYCLES AUTOMOTO. 1930. 371/4x251/2 inches. Condition B: restored losses in margins and image; restoration and creases in image. A strong and simple close-up image of the front fork of a bicycle against a vividly-colored background. This modernist approach, focussing on the machine in its majesty, is a far cry from the quirky, visual anecdotes of the turn-of-the-century bicycle posters. One of several, similar posters Marton created for cycles Automoto (including one almost identical close-up image with the wheel facing the opposite direction). Marton was an Hungarian artist who spent some time in Paris designing posters in a pure, French Art Deco style for DAM, all of which were for bicycle, car, or motorcycle companies. DAM was a branch of an advertising empire that was founded after the First World War by the Damour Brother. In 1921 they opened up DAM as a full-service ad agency that not only published posters but also bought advertising space for clients (among whom ranked some major accounts such as Peugeot). In November 1923 they launched the magazine Vendre which, for nearly 50 years was the major professional magazine for publicity in France and remains today as a precious reference on advertising during the period. Vendre, 1930, p. 487.
