Pneu Baudou "la Sirène" 1910

Leonetto Cappiello’s "Pneu Baudou 'la Sirène'" is a lithographic poster for bicycle tires. The artist has used blocks of blue and red, punctuated by the white circle of the tire held by a smiling red-haired mermaid. I can imagine Cappiello wrestling with the image. He would have been thinking about how to capture the spirit of both the mythical and the industrial. The texture of the print is smooth, with flat colors that almost feel like a stencil. The red background is interrupted by an illustration of the factory where the tire was made. It is a bold and playful piece. There's something so charming about its simplicity, its directness. Cappiello was part of a lineage of artists, including Toulouse-Lautrec, who elevated poster design to an art form. Artists build upon each other, responding to the world around them with creativity and ingenuity. And in a poster like this, painting becomes a form of communication that invites us all into the conversation.