Pepa Bonafe

Artist: Jean Carlu
1928

One of Carlu’s most celebrated posters. A classic Art Deco poster, showing cubist influences, by Jean Carlu, one of the early twentieth-century’s preeminent poster designers. On his famous image of the comedienne Pépa Bonafé, Carlu explained: "The Pépa Bonafé agent asked me to create a poster but I was not, like Loupot, a posterist of women. I did not feel comfortable. However, by stylizing her profile, I immediately caught the resemblance. Pépa Bonafé did not look her best, but she understood that this poster on walls would be excellent publicity. I combined curves and straight lines so that I could associate the mask of joy with the mask of sadness. " (Source)