French Art Deco Exposition Internationale Poster ‘Paris 1937’ by Carlu

This is a French Art Deco period advertisement for the International Exposition in Paris from 1937 by Jean Carlu. This is a wonderfully graphic image that features a white profile of a Romanesque face in the foreground. Composing the background is a collage of all of the country flags of the participants of the 1937 International Exposition dedicated to Art and Technology in Modern Life. This brightly colored poster with bold lines encapsulates the machine age aesthetic of the Art Deco period.

The 1937 Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne (International Exposition dedicated to Art and Technology in Modern Life) ran from May 25th to November 25th in Paris. The Musée de l’Homme and the Palais de Tokyo, which houses the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, were created for this exhibition. The Spanish, Soviet Union, and Nazi Germany pavilions were particularly notable. The Spanish pavilion attracted attention as the exposition took place during the Spanish Civil War and included a painting by Pablo Picasso, a sculpture by Alexander Calder, and a painting by Joan Miro, all on relating to the subject of war. The Soviet Union and Nazi Germany pavilions were directly across from each other, and were the only two completed on the opening day of the exhibition. This, combined with the vast ideological differences between these two countries, turned the exhibition into a competition between the two.

Printed in France and Published by the French government. Imp. Jules Simon, s.a. – Paris, Ministere du commerce et de L’industrie, 1937.