Razzia: A Journey Through Time
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In the golden age of posters, the best artists were employed to create unique artist impressions for advertising campaigns without the use of computer generated graphics. French artist Razzia replicates this process by conceiving his posters from an original painting to produce his memorable Art Deco inspired works.
“The best posters are powerful and influential. The worst are quickly forgotten.” ~ Carol A. Wells, Art Historian and Curator
You might have seen a Razzia poster, perhaps in a foreign language magazine or simply being sold in a commercial gallery, and been transfixed by a classy aesthetic that seems untouched by all of the technological and cultural developments that have swept through the art and commercial design worlds since World War II.
It turns out to be more literally the case than you might think, with Razzia eschewing today’s computer graphics in favour of conceiving his posters from an original painting. We may be living in a world seemingly obsessed with all things ‘retro’, whether or not their means of production are any actual kind of throwback. Still, few artists seem to embrace the methods of past times with quite the same authenticity as Razzia.
Indeed, Razzia’s distinctive approach — including close direct work with his clients to ensure the utmost creative control over his art — seems to make the difference, evoking all of the past poster-making masters like Cassandre, Leonetto Cappiello and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.
The story of the man who became Razzia began with the birth of Courbouleix–Dénériaz in Montparnasse at the onset of the 1950s. He did not start as a poster artist — instead, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Pink Floyd, the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin in his original professional capacity as a music photographer.
In 1979, however, he undertook a photo shoot for choreographer Carolyn Carlson, where he produced his first graphic. He began one of the most legendary…
