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Leonetto Cappiello
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| • Nationality: French |
| • Roles: Painter, Printmaker, Illustrator, Sculptor, Poster Artist, Dessinateur, Affichiste, Peintre |
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Leonetto Cappiello |
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Cappiello - A Poster Prince
A Mad Colorist from Paris Shows His Wares to Fifth Avenue
By Reginald Armsby
Theatre Magazine January, 1923
Leaping into Parisian fame through the success of his first caricature of a personage of the theatre, Leonetto Cappiello, master of poster art, has now attained to the dignity of an American exhibition of his more remarkable productions. The caricature that made him the centre of interest on the boulevards of Paris was a biting but non-malicious cartoon of Rejane. His incisive delineation of the actress as she appeared to the eyes of her admiring but sincere critics stamped the artist as the possessor of virile talent in the field of semi-portrait work—a talent that enabled him to make use of the human features as a means to convey his thoughts and his imaginations to the mind of the beholder even more effectively than by the written word.
His posters, recently on display at the Museum of French Art, 597 Fifth Avenue, under the direction of Elisabeth Marbury, have created something has thoughts and his imaginations to the mind of the beholder even more striking possibilities in the matter of poster advertising than this Italian-born, naturalized Frenchman. His style is all his own. Briefly, it may be said that he begins to use color where less original, or perhaps less courageous, confreres give up and turn to the sombre for relief. His posters have been termed "explosions" of polychromes. Yet, in spite of his lavish use of the brilliant and the flamboyant, he manages to convey a certain impression of simplicity and freshness which adds vastly to the effectiveness of his finished product.
An understanding of the "jealousy" of colors is the basis of Cappiello's remarkable success, according to an Italian critic. This insight into the psychological effects of color combinations and into the reactions in the human mind that follow the original consciousness of the flaming pictures that he presents, enables Cappiello to make sure of attaining the three purposes that he keeps in mind in every poster that he permits to be offered for display.
The three-fold purpose is first to attract the attention in compelling manner; second to hold the attention and third, to convey from the eye to the mind a message simple, logical and convincing. It is not sufficient that the picture he paints should be beautiful. He insists that it must be dynamic. He strives for and achieves the effect of figures that seem to leap from their background as if to join the pedestrian upon the pavement. The gestures of his figures are eloquent” sometimes intimate, sometimes aloof—but always with an uncanny naturalness at the same time that they are bizarre to the point of the sensational.
Paris, however, accustomed to admire beauty where it finds it and scorning the acid test or dissection that might distract its attention from beauty, accepts the poster gratefully. Cappiello's warm, voluptuous, vibrating figures, startlingly vocal with their splashing riot of colors, add to the charm of the boulevardier's daily "walking." In them he finds welcome relief from gray stone, gray skies and sombre pavement. Their cry is joyous. He fancies that he hears these cries before his eye recognizes what it is that has caused the impression.
Cappiello's own formula for a poster is that "the value of an effective poster lies integrally in the rhythm of the arabesque." He looks upon his lavish employment of color combinations "orange, violet, purple, emerald, black, silver and pale rose all in one composition" as merely a means to an end. His splashes of brilliant tints serve as the outcry to attract attention—for the poster that does not seize and hold the eye is worthless.
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