Extravaganza: Entertainment Posters 1890–1938
The last quarter of the nineteenth century saw a massive development of organised, institutionalised and professionalised entertainment, alongside the development of modern society and changes in lifestyle. Large cities underwent a fundamental transformation, offering their inhabitants, who were enjoying the new phenomenon of leisure time, a concentrated range of entertainment venues, cultural and sporting events, and more or less bizarre shows and extravaganzas. At that time, the term ‘extravaganza’ was not just a synonym for a spectacular show, but also described anything that attracted an audience with its flashy external form, such as noise and hype.
The entertainment industry’s superficiality and attractiveness influenced not only other areas of urban social life, but also activities far removed from the city, such as the perception of nature and landscapes through tourism and travel in search of spectacular experiences. The growing importance of visuality in the modern world, accompanied by the development of photography, film and, above all, advertising, saturated the senses with a plethora of images. In public spaces, the pictorial poster became a unique medium and a symptomatic manifestation of these fundamental shifts in sensory perception and the experience of the world. Its golden age, which culminated just before the turn of the twentieth century, codified the basic principles of this genre of visual communication. It was precisely posters advertising theatre performances, cabarets, dance carnivals, illusionist shows, sporting events and travel destinations that provided poster artists with an endless spectrum of entertaining and spectacular themes. The entertainment poster thus became an extravaganza in itself, a spectacle advertising spectacles.
The growing importance of striking external forms has become the driving force behind consumer society, reinforcing a relationship with the world based on alienation from reality. This is ultimately represented by empty forms and images that shape the contemporary world’s fictional reality. Over half a century ago, the French philosopher and sociologist Guy Debord highlighted the far-reaching consequences of prioritising spectacle over reality, effectively delegating individuals to the role of mere spectators in life, in his work La Société du spectacle (The Society of the Spectacle, 1967)
This exhibition of entertainment posters from before World War II features works by renowned domestic and international artists, including Jules Chéret, Alfons (Alphonse) Mucha, Luděk Marold, Karel Šimůnek, Arnošt Hofbauer, František Kysela, Vilém Rotter, Emil Weiss and Leo Heilbrun. It also showcases anonymous prints depicting contemporary productions. The exhibition will explore a particular type of advertising medium through a thematic cross-section of entertainment genres and the stylistic and functional changes in graphic design. Furthermore, it will offer an engaging insight into the history of consumer leisure and institutionalised entertainment. The exhibition also invites reflection on Debord’s ideas about the spectacle as a social system that determines the role of individuals and their relationship to the world. In today’s age of virtual media and reality, his ideas are highly relevant.
Works from the collections of the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague, the West Bohemian Museum in Plzeň, and the North Bohemian Museum in Liberec will be displayed. The exhibition will feature more than a hundred posters, complemented by enlarged period photographs and additional content, such as author and entertainment venue profiles.
