Description:
This modernist poster carries the characteristics of constructivist style. Constructivism was one of the prevailing graphic design tendencies in the 1920s and 1930s. Sandor Bortnyik is often referred to as the artsit who reformed Hungarian graphic art by introducing modernism, based on what he learned in the Weimar Bauhaus School. The author of this design, Magda Perlmutter was a pupil of Sandor Bortnyik in his Hungarian Bauhaus school, the Muhely. Although the most important period of constructivist tendencies was between 1928 and 1930 and in the following three years a slight shift took place towards avant-garde, this piece from the 1930s carries the characteristics of constructivism. It is rational and focuses on the advertised object. The effect achieved by the strong coontrast betweed black and red with the addition of a little blue was also apparent on most constructivist pieces. However, what alludes to this piece being a late constructivist design is the application of paint spray, what was introduced to graphic art in the 1930s. The artist used it to express the transparency of surfaces on which light falls - the sides of the shoe sole and the shoe polish packages. This enriches the otherwise strictly constructed composition with ethereal delicacy.
In 1933, Bortnyik published a short-lived poster art journal, titled Plakat (Poster), and the fourth issue, published in June of that year, contained a reproduced poster design artwork by Perlmutter.
