Cassandre (Adolphe Mouron)
Cassandre, whose real name was Adolphe Marie Mouron, was born in 1901 in the Ukraine. In 1915, he moved to Paris, where he studied at the École des Beaux-Arts and at the Académie Julian. He chose his pseudonym in 1922, when he started designing posters.
He first became famous in 1925, when he was awarded a gold medal at the “Exposition internationale des arts décoratifs” for his poster Au Bûcheron, which he had created for a French furniture company in 1923. The first typical, Cubist-influenced Cassandre posters started appearing around this time.
His unmistakable style made Cassandre world-famous; his poster art is characterized by two-dimensional, stylized images, distorted effects and brilliantly expressive typography.