CASSANDRE by Roland Mouron, Estate of A.M.CASSANDRE
A.M.CASSANDRE PAR ROLAND MOURON
A.M.CASSANDRE
A VISIONARY DESIGNER - ACT 1 (1921-1934)​
FIRST STEPS​
Paris, winter of 1921... After the dark years of war, a fierce desire to live anew stirs among the French. Everywhere, people attempt to invent a new art of living to forget the deprivations and sufferings of the past. That year, in an advertising workshop, the frenetic sound of pencil leads scraping on cardboard regularly pierces the silence among the designers. Each is busy completing posters that will soon brighten the streets of the capital to promote the products they represent. Among all these visuals, the work of the young Jean-Marie Mouron stands out. In the foreground, a field of golden wheat stretches endlessly with a bright red devil, smirking as it cuts the ears of wheat. Above the composition, the object of its desire.
Les pâtes Garres 1922
While the poster stands out for its humorous character, its style and craftsmanship still borrow from Capiello, the star poster artist of the moment. His fantastical universe and vibrant colors captivate everyone seeking escapism. In the war-scarred cities, his genies, devils, fairies, and frolicking animals sweep passersby into a whirlwind of endless intoxication. This concept of a poster that delivers a message while contributing to the creation of a unique universe is also shared by Jean-Marie Mouron. Still just a young apprentice, he already has many ideas. His conviction is driven by a creed : " Success does not wait for those who gently cajole the bystanders. Success belongs to those who conquer the public 'by force' or rather, if I may use a military term, who violate it."​​
ART FOR ALL​
Since the end of the war, his curious nature has driven him to explore multiple forms of expression. In search of renewal, painting, architecture, sculpture, and lithography have enriched his training as a graphic designer. His inspiration is also nourished by all the currents that have recently shattered the shackles of classical art. With bold strokes of straight lines, cubic forms, and geometric compositions adorned with large swaths of bold colors, the proponents of this new style still form an avant-garde, but already one can sense in their work a new world in gestation. Passionate about German Bauhaus, Russian constructivism, cubism, and French lyrical abstraction, Jean-Marie Mouron also wants to be modern. But unlike his masters, he intends to spread this new language to the masses, previously reserved for salons and workshops.
At the time, the small world of poster art is undergoing a transformation, particularly that of advertising posters struggling to find a new identity. Everywhere, a need for renewal is expressed, and the codes inherited from the Belle Époque must be shelved. Already, in all sectors of the economy, recovery is underway; consumption must be reinvigorated. In tune with the spirit of his time, Jean-Marie Mouron theorizes his profession of faith: "A poster is not, must not be, like a painting, a unique specimen designed to satisfy the shadowy love of a single more or less enlightened amateur; it must be a series-produced object, like them intended to provide certain material services, to fulfill a commercial function." Through his sketches, he gives birth to his own style, synthesizing all the currents he discovered during his years of training. And what better than the name of a mythological figure with a divine gift of prophecy for an artist who sees himself as a visionary. Soon, to his initials, he attaches the pseudonym that becomes his signature: Cassandre.
In 1923, the furniture factory "Au Bûcheron" gives him the opportunity to prove his talent. The company, needing to energize its image, entrusts him with the creation of a monumental poster. For months, the young man reflects on the best way to make an impact: " To render with some verisimilitude the gesture of a tree feller, I have traversed the Montmorency forest in all directions. Above all, I made plentiful studies from an athlete... Once imbued with my subject (...) I freely schematized the fellow and his tree. [...] My invention was subordinated to the limits of an oblong horizontal 'field.' This servitude led me to a very flattened V-shaped triangular arrangement, the only one that allowed me to accommodate, along with the letter, the character and the symbolic decor..." The tone is set: order, color, and geometry.
Au Bûcheron 1923
His creation depicts, in a cubist style, a lumberjack in the midst of chopping, illuminated like a hero by the rising sun. When the poster is displayed across the streets of the capital and sparks the curiosity of passersby, Cassandre knows he has won his bet. " Railway tracks aren’t marked with signs saying 'Please stop.' Instead, bright, colorful signals have wisely been chosen—forms of ideograms infinitely more expressive and much quicker to read. The poster, which must speak quickly, adopts the same language: the image, the very vehicle of thought. "
Success comes swiftly. For the first time, the artist gains recognition from his peers. Just two years later, during the height of the Roaring Twenties, the prestigious International Exhibition of Decorative Arts awards him the Grand Prize. Displayed alongside the great names of his time, such as Le Corbusier, Juan Gris, Picasso, Mallet-Stevens, and Ruhlmann, Cassandre rises to fame almost overnight.
THE MAN AND THE MACHINE​
Now at the forefront, married to Madeleine Cauvet, the daughter of a wealthy French automobile manufacturer, he is free to turn his art into an industry reflective of his era. By 1925, the uncertainty and gloom had given way to a shockwave that traversed all sectors of society. Bodies and minds were liberated. Women shortened their dresses and hair, discarding all attire that hindered them. The time was for modernity at any cost. Already, old armament factories were converting. It was the era of automobiles, trains, and planes that transformed everyday life. Air and auto races were in vogue, their participants breaking records as if to prove they were alive after years of horrific trench warfare. The machine allowed man to surpass himself. At the forefront of this thought were the Futurists, a movement celebrating progress.
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For these pioneers, the nascent technological revolution had to be accompanied by a cultural revolution, and soon all artistic practices were struck by this contagion. Life had to be fast. Cassandre, clearly perceiving this shift, conceded: "The 'telegraphic style' prevails everywhere: correspondence has been replaced by the telephone call, the discourse by the slogan, the barcarolle by swing, and the cinematograph by cinema. Today's man is in a hurry. He admires brevity, the sketch, the straight line, prefers violence to force, the shout to conversation, the pillow fight to love, and Coca-Cola to Château Margaux. That's why he loves the poster and why it may be his most faithful expression."
At just 24 years old, it was the commission for the cover of the newspaper L'Intransigeant that allowed him to let his intuitions run free. By staging a humanoid with a communication network plugged into its ear, the android he created, a true allegory of the modern-day street crier, transcended its aesthetic function to become a true manifesto of its time. A year later, Cassandre went even further. The Northern Railway, seeking a new breath of life, entrusted him with the task of refreshing their image. The spirit of their pre-war advertisements, which promised calm and rest to families, no longer matched the new tastes of the public. Everything had to be rethought, both function and style had to be redefined. He wrote: " The poster is merely a means of communication between the merchant and the public, something like the telegraph. The poster designer plays the role of the telegraph operator: he does not emit the message, he transmits it. His opinion is not sought; he is asked to establish a clear, powerful, precise communication... A poster must solve three problems: optical, graphic, poetic. "
Nord Express 1927
Then, evacuating character and landscape to make room for the machine, he designed a locomotive adorned with monumental geometry. The glorified engine, speeding through the horizon, seemed to propel the viewer into a new era, offering a renewed worldview. For the viewer, it was an unprecedented aesthetic shock and for Cassandre, the invention of a method that became the very foundation of his approach. In his process, if the visual must instantly capture the eye, the typography of the slogan must restore the word's power. Thus, he designed a typeface, the result of meticulously theorized development: " ...the eyes of readers have been accustomed for two centuries to high-contrast characters. Let's push to the extreme the idea that the eye only sees the solids and eliminate the serifs. We obtain... a character let's say extremist at the first degree... The maintained elements are not only the strong times of writing; they are the irreducible parts of the signs themselves. A doubly instructive experience: it pushes modernist stripping to its limit. "
​​While the avant-garde was still advocating the use of lowercase yesterday, Cassandre's capitals stand out as a sign of the new world's domination over the old. The Bifur alphabet, appearing in 1929, is an unprecedented aesthetic innovation. Elegant, stripped-down, its use in the world of advertising is all the more suitable as the characters are entirely conceived in capitals: a small revolution. Cassandre explained: " Bifur was designed like an electric broom or an internal combustion engine, to fulfill a determined function and not to decorate. It is this virtue of utility that can make it partake in our current events. "
Bifur 1927
Growth is in full swing. Paris is transformed by ongoing construction, with automobiles flooding the streets to become the model of urban mobility, and home appliances revolutionizing daily life. Assembly lines quickly become the standard across all industries. The radio emerges as the preferred medium of a new mass culture. Consequently, the graphic designer becomes the emblem of a booming profession.
As consumer society emerges, advertisement and poster publishers evolve into advertising agents, while renowned companies eagerly entrust the creation of their visuals to the rising stars of the industry.
Plaquette Publicitaire Hachard & Cie 1926
STREET SCENE DIRECTOR
In 1931, Cassandre took on the artistic direction at one of his agencies. Uncompromising, the man revealed himself to be consumed by a work he wanted to be absolute. Haunted by an insatiable quest for perfection, he worked according to his own criteria, choosing after analysis the main element around which he built his composition. His commitment commanded admiration. He wrote, “ ...I have only one concern, to perpetually renew myself... Each poster is a new battle to attempt, or rather a new battle to engage, to win. ”
Soon, Nicolas spirits entrusted him with a project. He then designed a completely new poster, which was all about optical entertainment. Relying on the mascot of the brand, he captured the vibrations caused by the character’s movements, which he translated into a series of line plays in homage to kinetic art. Once again, his persistence and determination paid off, and the triumph was undeniable. The extraordinary poster ended up displayed in over 500 locations. A stroke of genius.
Nicolas Plakat 1935
Aware of his strengths, he confesses, "More sensitive to form than to color, to the arrangement of things rather than their detail, and to the spirit of geometry rather than to the spirit of finesse, I would find myself, in terms of painting, at a disadvantage. However, as a poster artist, this predisposition uniquely comforted me."​
Yet, the euphoria was short-lived. In 1931, France was hit hard by the recession from America. With business slowing down, production collapsed, and the "Alliance Graphique" agency that employed him was faltering, and orders were insufficient to prevent bankruptcy. With the crisis, the Roaring Twenties came to an end, unemployment rose, poverty increased, and hunger marches multiplied. To this dire climate, a tragedy was added.​
The sudden disappearance of Maurice Moyrand, his closest friend and employer, plunged him into the depths of depression. And while Paris saw its horizon expand with the emergence of the first photojournalism in the press, which paved the way for new aesthetic perspectives, Cassandre locked himself in denial of reality. He isolated himself, and when he was not pacing in his studio, he found refuge in the dark movie theaters of Paris. But the artist had not yet had his final say.
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THE CAMERA-EYE​
At that time, the palaces of the seventh art were rapidly emerging in the capital. On the grand boulevards, the Grand Rex opened its doors. Crowds flocked to see Jean Renoir's Boudu Saved from Drowning, Jean Vigo's L'Atalante, or René Clair's Freedom for Us. But it was also productions from across the Atlantic that drew spectators. Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times and the first technicolor cartoons from the Disney studios equally mesmerized audiences. An admirer of Abel Gance, Eisenstein, and Fritz Lang, Cassandre had already drawn from their universes, blending man and machine. Yet, he aimed to go even further. Soon, his compositions for Pathé phonographs, Champion du Monde, and Lawn-Tennis adopted the use of close-ups, a technique that allowed for the magnification of objects. This approach mirrored the visuals for Celtique cigarettes or Unic shoes that have become iconic.
Inspired by animated films as well, Cassandre incorporated stylized silhouettes into his compositions. Reduced to their simplest expression, the characters became logos immediately associated with the brands they represented. The image of the little grocer holding the world in one hand and a scale in the other, with a green-orange color code for the Casino brand, followed this logic: "Railroad tracks weren't lined with signs saying 'please stop.' Instead, brightly colored signals were wisely preferred, kinds of ideograms infinitely more expressive and quicker to read. The poster, which must speak quickly, chose the same language: the image as the vehicle of thought."
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But the most emblematic figure that Cassandre created at the time was the character made for the Dubonnet brand. For this advertiser seeking a new image, Cassandre relied on the cadence of a simple slogan: "Dubo...Dubon...Dubonnet." The bowler-hatted character, embodying the Everyman, presented in a triptych that fills with color as he empties his glass, was an instant triumph. Dubbed "the first street scene director" by his friend, the novelist Blaise Cendrars, Cassandre became the emblem of an era. The great set designer Alexandre Trauner even chose to dress the buildings in the film Daybreak with Dubonnet advertising !​​​
© ROLAND MOURON - AM.CASSANDRE