PAUL COLIN (1892-1986) MUSEE D'ETHNOGRAPHIE DU TROCADERO / PARIS. 1930.
47x31 1/4 inches, 119 1/4x79 1/4 cm. Joseph-Charles, Paris.
Condition A: slight darkening at side edges.
The Ethnographic Museum in Paris was founded in 1878. In 1930, when all of Paris was abuzz about the approaching Colonial Exhibition (of 1931), the museum opened spectacular new exhibition spaces. Among the treasures to be discovered in the refurbished halls was a massive sculpted head from Easter Island. This image appears in perfect rendering on the poster as monolithic graphically as it was in real life. Colin has added an African Punu mask onto the ear of the sculpture. This, indicative of the full scope of the museum's holdings, is said to have been a piece from Colin's own collection, as he was an avid collector of primitive art. Given that Colin's primary artistic focus was on music hall posters, this is his best image for a cultural event, and also one of the rarest. Not in Colin, Reclame 112.