Art Nouveau and the Swiss poster. First edition. New condition. 

Geneva: Patrick Cramer, 2006 (Alan Wofsy Fine Arts distribution). Decorative board. 32.5 x 23.5 cm. 156 pages, 129 color illustrations,...In Switzerland as elsewhere, Art Nouveau transformed the poster. It embodies dreams of Beauty and Justice, in which the poster finds a new dimension. From a vulgar and despised advertising medium, it becomes, overnight, a respected and admired work of art.This book carefully examines this spectacular transformation by integrating it into the great social, intellectual and artistic movements which rocked Europe at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In Switzerland, artists trained in Paris or Munich are becoming the animating artisans of this change. By drawing from French or English Art Nouveau, from German Jugendstil, they create movements that are sometimes different, sometimes converging, which give the 1900 Swiss poster an exceptional level. French-speaking Switzerland is dominated by Geneva, where the pioneers of artistic posters flourish, who add a strong local connotation to their French inspiration. In German-speaking Switzerland, German or Austrian influences are felt, but they too are synthesized in a strong Swiss spirit dominated by the high personality of Ferdinand Hodler who gives him exceptional impetus. This well-documented work introduces for the first time this exceptional adventure which illuminates the history of European Art Nouveau in an original light. It shows how a country with marked cultural diversity synthesizes different influences in a powerful and original movement. Jean-Charles Giroud, deputy director of the Geneva Public and University Library, curator of the poster collection, is the author of numerous books and studies on the Swiss poster.