Would you walk out of your way to see a bunch of posters advertising such banal goods as cough drops, cosmetics and cigarette rolling papers? You might if you knew they were vintage color lithographs created by such art-historical masters as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Alphonse Mucha and Jules Cheret.
Merrill Chase Galleries` ”The Triumph of the Poster” brings together more than 250 lithographic works from turn-of-the-century France, ranging from $250 to $85,000.
”The importance of these posters is that various companies commissioned them as original artwork by fine artists,” explained Albert Sanford, director of the Water Tower Place branch of Merrill Chase Galleries. ”They were used to advertise specific products or events, but unlike many posters, they weren`t simply reproduced from the artists` existing work; so each is essentially a work of art itself.”
And rare to boot: Though thousands of these Art Nouveau broadsides were printed, most were glued to Parisian walls, and relatively few have managed to survive.
”One of the reasons they survived at all was because they were admired and collected in their day and are now highly sought after,” Sanford said.
The exhibition, distributed among gallery locations at Water Tower Place, Woodfield Mall and Oakbrook Center, is on view through April.
