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Advertising and Art: International Graphics From the Affiche to Pop-Art

A historical look at the unsavory-to-some intersection between commercial and fine art--from Jules Chéret to Andy Warhol to the present.

Book Digest For those people who attempt to claim the world of fine art is distinct from the commercial one, sullied by filthy lucre and other crass venal motives, this book may be hard to swallow as it clearly and definitely exhibits the blurring of what arguably are archaic categories—though even a rudimentary knowledge of art history puts a lie to the alleged purity of fine art. All that aside, this graphic survey begins with late-19th-century French posters (Jules Chéret) and, of course, includes that darling of the material world Andy Warhol—and beyond. In addition to nearly 200 well-produced and selected images that exhibit the progression (not necessarily progress) of commercial graphics, there are seven essays by various experts that explicate elements of graphic-arts history. In any case, whatever your stance on artistic purity and the commercial degradation of art, this is a visually delicious offering, more nutritional than eye candy.
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