Poster, Lucio Venna, Italy, 1927

Lucio Venna (Giuseppe Landsmann) 3 Corsa Automobilistica Cuneo vintage poster 1927 76.5 h x 53.125 w in (194 x 135 cm) "At first an active and enthusiastic member of the Italian futurist movement, Lucio Venna became frustrated with the ideas of his futurist colleagues after World War I and decided to turn away from painting and illustration.

Starting in 1922, he fixed his attention almost exclusively on posters, hundreds of which he created up through the beginning of World War II. This is one such image from the height of his advertising career. The poster was commissioned to promote an automobile race in Cuneo, Italy, although the race-course itself actually ran through the Maddalena Pass, which connects the Maritime Alps with the Cottian Alps and Cuneo with Barcelonnette, France. The design perfectly represents the varied topography of the Italian city, which is located in a tree-lined valley at the base of the mountains.

The Stura di Demonte river is depicted at the left. This is not the only design Venna created for an automobile race, but it is perhaps the most graphically harmonious work in his oeuvre" ( The Art Deco Poster, Crouse, p. 176). Edizione Studio Venna Innocenti, Florence Provenance: Collection of William Crouse Literature: The Art Deco Poster, Crouse, p. 177 This work will ship from Chicago, Illinois.