JEAN CARLU GIVE 'EM BOTH BARRELS. 1941

Along with such other poster-world luminaries as Adolphe Mouron Cassandre, Paul Colin and Charles Loupot, Carlu was one of the poster artists to revolutionize French graphic design between the wars. Unlike the other three artists, however, Carlu was the only one who was politically left-wing. In 1932 he was one of the founders of "l'Office de Propagande pour la Paix" (the Office of Propaganda for Peace), a non-profit agency dedicated to preserving peace in Europe. An architect by training (he had to give up that pursuit when he lost his right arm in an accident in 1918), Carlu's graphic design was influenced by the Cubist art of Juan Gris and Albert Gleize. He spent World War II in America, where he continued producing masterful, modernist posters for the war effort. In 1939 Carlu, while still in France, designed a poster promoting the "Anglo-French Day for the benefit of the combatants and of their families" featuring two soldiers in profile, a theme which he clearly replicated here, but with far more effect and impact. "A visual analogy is found between a machine gun and a rivet-gun" (Word & Image p. 61) driving home the connection between home front workers and front line soldiers. This is the smaller of two formats. Design for Victory p. 29, The Modern American Poster 46, Word & Image p. 61, Judd 4.7.