Affiche voor het Internationaal Eucharistisch Congres, 1924 1924

This poster by Jan Toorop, advertising a Eucharistic Congress in Amsterdam, is all about flowing lines and muted colour, offset by a zingy gold. I'm thinking about Toorop making this, in 1924. The pressure of the commission, and the need to communicate faith in a modern visual language. The challenge here is how to make spiritual ideas seem solid on paper. The gold chalice is the anchor, and then the eye is led upwards by those graphic white rays and that soft ethereal figure. There is a sense of Art Deco sleekness, cut through with something else, something more mysterious and evocative. The blue reminds me of medieval stained glass and a modern kind of graphic sensibility is at play in the lines and shapes. Artists are always referencing, remixing, and sampling. What came before infuses what comes next, like an echo across time. And when we look we respond, connecting it all together.