Swiss Poster Artists
It all started with the Matterhorn
The Swiss Artist Poster, characterised by the monumentalistic style of Hodler with clearly bordered forms, was the precondition for the emergence of works by the first poster designers such as Cuno Amiet, Burkhard Mangold, Plinio Colombi and Emil Cardinaux.
Emil Cardinaux, who was one of the first artists to recognize, consistently apply and expand the laws of poster design, learned to lithograph and knew the technical possibilities of lithographic printing. Even before his first poster designs, he had pursued the aim of creating posters that were works of art complete within themselves and appearing as independent as possible from their surroundings. He recognized that lithography would allow low-cost production of posters with high light resistance, brilliant colours and strong effects even at a distance. The 1905 “Matterhorn” is an excellent example to prove this.