VASTA: March 2015

Next Show: Postcard EXPO New York March 20 & 21st

Adding a third show to the NYC postcard calendar, Mary Martin is presenting Postcard Expo New York City, March 20 and 21st at the Midtown Holiday Inn, details here. As always I will be presenting rare and unusual discoveries from Europe. A preview of the recent arrivals, prices on request.

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Bruno Righi automobile garage advertising Italy 1939

Gaukler Festival German circa 1930

Viet-Nam War Russian anti-American propaganda

15 cards w/wrapper 1966

German Coca-Cola advertising early 1950s

Promoting German industrial production circa 1925

Swiss Fraternity 1920

French surreal fantasy Paris in the Future circa 1900

Art Deco fashion plate, prostitution circa 1925

Real Photo ~ RPPC

Ostra Studios Maitress and Submissive Paris 1930

series of four cards

WWI photo-montage soldiers 1915

Gottbus P.O.W. camp theatre WWI crosss-dressers circa 1916

Surreal fantasy amorous smoke signals German 1925

series of four cards

Pierre Dac "Loufoques" creations. Advertising photo-montage
Parisian art exhibition circa 1930

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Paris Exhibition DRAWING BOOKS Les Halles St.Pierre

Wonderful exhibition at one of my favorite Parisian cultural institutions, Les Halle Saint Pierre locate at the foot of the Sacre Coeur church. Ignore the tourists traps, the fabric stores and the funicular and check out the current show Les Cahiers Dessines at this center for "art brut", aka outside art. I loved the main show, however, the sidebar exhibition, Mosner Livresque the work of Ricardo Mosner in the cafe/foyer area, was exceptional and worthy of a post. While the main exhibition continues to the middle of August, the Mosner sidebar exhibition closed March 1st.

On the walls, artworks, including drawings, painting and sculptural, three-dimensional figures and objects by plus a large table like vitrine with many of the artist "carnets" (notebooks) on view.

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Carnets in the vitrine ...

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Paris PAPER SHOW Feb'15 CHARLIE HEBDO Hommage

Back in Paris for the February paper show at Champerret there was a special exhibition hastily put together by one of the dealers, Philippe Grosjean. It took a brief look at the history of French illustrated satirical journals starting in the 1860s with L'Eclipse through to the present day with the main focus on Charlie Hebdo. Although the installation of the exhibition was basic and quickly pulled together it was very well done, presenting the generational influences over 150 years that have brought illustrated satire to the forefront in free speech discussions through out the world.

No matter what you think of Charlie Hebdo, its right to exist is essential, more so than ever, after the events surrounding the terrorist attacks in Paris in January. It was well represented amongst the "generalist" paper dealers with everything from single copies to massive piles of Charlie, Charlie Hebdo and it's predecessor, Hara-Kiri. For a history of these publications go here.

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The first issue November 23, 1970. Note the match sticks used to hold the magazines in place in the corrugated cardboard mount!

Charlie was the predecessor to Charlie Hebdo and featured syndicated comic strips from a wide spectrum of newspapers, focused primarily on American serials. The title of the magazine, taken from Charles Shultz's Charlie Brown, featured Snoopy, posed on the roof of his dog house, on the cover of the first issue. Above, Chester Gould's Dick Tracy on the cover of issue 20.

Seen at the fair the (un)usual mix of old paper, posters, books, postcards and original artwork spread around the very large exhibition space, which once again saw a drop in the number of dealers. It is the way of most collectible fairs with ever decreasing attendance by both sellers and buyers. I for one love this show and wouldn't miss it!!