Verdol, dentrifice vert oxygéné 1911

Leonetto Cappiello made this poster, Verdol, dentrifice vert oxygéné, and it’s just a swirl of green and yellow hues that makes me want to dive right into it. I can almost feel Cappiello at work; the way he uses color here isn't just about representation, but about evoking a mood, a feeling. The woman dancing there seems to have come alive through the sheer act of painting. What was he thinking as he swirled those colors around? Maybe he wanted to evoke a feeling of freshness, or maybe he wanted to find a way to express vitality. It is like he is saying, let’s add some fairy dust and oxygen to your dental hygiene. There’s something generous about the gesture of the arm reaching up toward the product. It is as if he is saying that painting and advertising are ways of offering something good to the world. I bet he would get along well with Toulouse Lautrec, with a kindred spirit of bold color and dynamic composition. I love how painting embraces ambiguity, allowing for multiple interpretations.