Jack Rennert

One of my all time favourite browsing books, every page bursts with astonishing visual energy. There is a handful of Cappiello images which are endlessly reproduced by poster historians but my suspicion that there was a lot more to his work than this is more than confirmed by this exhaustive survey of his complete output. What becomes clear is that his work forms a bridge between the lavish decoration of the era of Les Maitres de l’Affiche and the altogether more robust and pared down post-Cubist imagery of Cassandre and Loupot. The formula is simple – the stock theatrical characters of La Belle Époque respond exuberantly to the formidable qualities of the product against uncluttered but richly coloured backgrounds. It is also apparent that Cappiello was an early master of the pack-shot – however flamboyant the execution and design, the package is always accorded a lovingly detailed treatment. The images radiate vitality and a level of sustained invention which never fails to impress. The colour combinations range from stark contrasts to subtle harmonies while the compositions vary between kinetic complexity (Gancia Vermouth) and utter simplicity (the Bouillon Kub).

The book itself is a model of unobtrusive clarity, the commentaries are brief and to the point and unlike many other recent books on the graphic arts the images are given space to speak for themselves. The scale of the author’s task is staggering and the whole enterprise is a true labour of love. It would be wonderful to see some of the other under appreciated masters of poster art rewarded with similar treatment – my nominees would be Lucian Bernhard, Joseph Binder, Niklaus Stoecklin, Paolo Garretto and Tom Purvis.… (mer)