It was mainly Théophile Steinlen’s merit of having transformed the rather jovial style of the late Daumier into an effective and dramatic means of expression for socialist class struggle.The few cover illustrations which Steinlen made for “Le Chambard Socialiste” by using his anarchistic pen name “Petit Pierre” became milestones of the socialist art of the 20th century. “Petit Pierre” is a French translation of Steinlen or Steinlein. The name is of Swabian origin and is a diminutive form of “stone”. He probably has chosen this pseudonym with an anti-church suggestion in mind. The influence of his “Assiette au Beurre” classic, “La Vision de Hugo,” (26.2.1902) on artists like Alfred Kubin and Willibald Krain can hardly be overestimated.
Alexander Roob’s “History of Press Graphics. 1819-1921. The Age of Graphic Journalism” is out now. (Taschen Cologne, Hardcover, 24.6 x 37.2 cm). In over 600 pages, this far-reaching compendium presents press illustration and graphic journalism as a distinct and unique genre and a laboratory for developing avant-garde aesthetics. The images are largely taken from the […]
What sails here under the flag of caricature is nothing other than an early form of blunt and bleak social realism. The group makes a powerful and monumental impression, misery in the dimension of a history picture, and that’s exactly how it was meant to be. The publisher of La Caricature, Charles Philipon, like most […]
Heavenly Zo / INRI becomes ISO / Swabian and Lorraine Somnambulism Heavenly Zo Richard’s emblematic sexual symbolism originated in the theurgic Neoplatonic geometry of Alexandrian late antiquity and had found its way from there into Jewish mysticism and Hermeticism. The most famous example was the Seal of Solomon, the hexagram, which consisted in the interpenetration […]