Hervé Morvan, Artist and Poet of the “optique de la rue”

Abstract

After the dark years of German occupation, a new generation of poster artists emerged in France. Although advertising was not yet a marketing tool, these authors proposed a new, original graphic language, with innovative principles of commercial communication: very colorful, lively posters, pervaded by a subtle humor, the “visual gags”. The streets are the galleries where to exhibit; the poster is the medium, the viewer the target to hit.

Among this new generation, the artists who emerge are definitely Bernard Villemot, Raymond Savignac and Hervé Morvan. Between 1947 and 1951, the first two occupied the same studio, although their graphic language differed considerably.

Morvan establishes himself after a long apprenticeship. Born in Brittany in 1917, Hervé moves with his family to Paris where he attends the “Ecole des Arts Appliqués”, graduating in 1934 as a decorator, painter of murals and stained glass. At first he worked in film advertising (the large billboards that advertised films) before producing, after 1942, his first posters. After the war he worked for important companies such as Perrier, Savora, Panzani; but the commercial poster that made him known to the general public was that of 1948 for the underwear “Scandale”, presented at the Exhibition of the Fair of Lyon. His amusing style in advertising products through a drawn gag, is quickly successful; from Gitanes tobacco to Grutli beer, from Primagaz to Geveor wine, from Bendix electrical appliances to Gévéor wine, and again Bally, Petit-Bateau, Mazda, up to Alsacienne and Banania cookies, Kwatta and Lanvin chocolate, etc. Morvan composes “street paintings”, with bright colors and simple, but extremely effective, drawings, which also represent an extraordinary repertoire of “visual gags”.

For his posters, Morvan is inspired by the light-hearted, playful, reassuring naivety of children; Morvan’s graphic repertoire is populated by friendly characters and smiling animals, such as Lanvin’s wolf who, instead of biting Little Red Riding Hood, happily bites into a chocolate bar!