Date: 1934
Size: 9.5 x 13.5 inches
Notes: Poster, Carton
Artist: Xanti
About The Poster: Even though there was large scale Italian production of posters, relatively little has been preserved. In Italy there was less of a poster mania than in France, where poster collecting was a phenomenon starting in the 1890s. There were fewer clubs, expositions, publications and galleries which promoted posters and poster collecting. Equally important, a high percentage of poster overruns were destroyed. It is believed that thousands of posters were thrown away when the Fascist regime took power. Printing warehouses were swept clean of anything reflecting bourgeois values.' Then, when the Allies liberated Italy at the end of WWII, many Italian citizens destroyed any Fascist posters in their possession and the printing warehouses were once again emptied.
In 1933, new directions in Italian avant-garde design were marked by the opening of the Studio Boggeri in Milan. It’s most famous artist was Xanti Schawinsky, who brought his Bauhaus training to use in strong posters for Princeps and Illy Coffee. A sophisticated graphic language was also cultivated at Olivetti, with Marcello Nizzoli joining in 1938. With these developments, Italy was poised to be a leader in the international design movement after the war.