PAUL COLIN (1892-1986) ANDRÉ RENAUD. 1929. 62 1/4x46 3/4 inches, 158x118 3/4 cm. H. Chachoin, Paris. Condition A-: minor restored losses and repaired tears at edges; minor creases and abrasions in image. Framed. Paul Colin was one of the most important graphic designers of theater and music hall posters during the French Art Deco period. His poster for the Revue Nègre, a one-night event in 1925, made Josephine Baker, jazz and himself the craze of all Paris. Colin went on to design hundreds of posters, stage sets, costumes and cabaret decorations, to the point where his work is inextricably linked to the creativity and exuberance that made the Roaring Twenties unique. He was very fond of the piano as a decorative element and it began appearing in stylized form in some of his earliest posters. In assessing Colin's piano posters, his first, and by far the best, was for Wiener et Doucet in 1925 - a soft, geometrically-balanced poster. In 1927 he took the piano to further Cubist abstraction in an exquisite poster for Lisa Duncan. In 1929 he used this comfortable Cubist approach again for André Renaud; a virtuoso who could play two pianos at the same time. Colin no. 74, Crouse p. 158, The Poster p. 137.
