Alton Kelley (1940 – 2008)
Stanley Mouse (George Stanley Miller) (b. 1940)
1966
Commercial/offset poster on paper
3rd printing
Fairchild Endowment Fund purchase
2015.49.7
Inspired by Alphonse Mucha, poster for JOB rolling papers, 1898
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Image source
The artists of the 1960s rock music posters were inspired by the distinctive designs of the late 19th-century Art Nouveau style. Its leading artist was the Czech-born Alfonse Mucha, who settled in Paris in 1888. His poster of French actress Sarah Bernhardt in the role of Gismonda (1895) inaugurated a new graphic style favoring the feminine form depicted in fluid lines with flowers and natural elements. Perhaps his most famous poster, JOB, featured a similar Byzantine inspired border as the Bernhardt poster. JOB is the trade name of the Joseph Bardou Company, manufacturers of cigarette papers. In Mucha’s advertisement, the emphasis is on the female figure and her abundance of swirling hair, which draws attention away from the cigarette in her hand. The poster was very popular and re-issued in a variety of formats for Mucha’s international clientele.