?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 4,000
MONOGRAM UNKNOWN 1RE EXPOSITION INTERLE D'ART COLONIAL / ROME. 1931. 31x23 inches, 78 3/4x58 1/2 cm. I.G.A.P., Rome. Condition B+/ A-: minor repaired tears at edges; minor repaired tears, creases and restoration along vertical and horizontal folds; slight time-staining in upper left image. The first Exposition of Colonial Art was held in Paris in May 1931, primarily with contributions from France and Italy. 'The goals of the expo were clear to both the participants and the press: to highlight each nation's accomplishments as a colonial nation, and the supposed unity of the Latin sister nations' (Marinetti p. 217). Just a few months later, Italy hosted its own Exhibition of Colonial Art in Rome, in order to further emphasize colonialist accomplishments and disseminate Futurist propaganda. 'Mussolini was reportedly pleased that the exhibit was building a 'colonial consciousness' in Italy' (ibid. p. 218). This French language poster advertising the Rome exhibit focuses on the presentation of indigenous cultures. Ethnographic studies of colonial populations, as well as indigenous crafts were put on display, but this Modernist image places the human body of one of Italy's 'subjects' on a podium like a living statue, flanked by stylized silhouettes of palm trees.
