Monday, March 2, 2009

Razzia: Poster Artist Extraordinaire

Gerard Courbouleix Deneriaz, commonly known as Razzia, is the last graphic artist who can honestly be called a posterist. In this age of computer art, he is one of the world’s few modern day poster artists.

During the Golden Age before all the new computer technology, advertisers hired the best artists to make unique renderings of the things they wished to sell in order to stand out from their competitors with a strong image. Razzia’s posters embody perfect communication – elegantly modern and executed with uniquely surreal Art Deco brevity.

He began his career as a successful photographer hired to capture “rock & roll giants” like Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, and Pink Floyd. But Razzia began to feel limited by the camera. Looking for an expression that gave him the opportunity to control every detail of composition, he devoted himself to graphic design. In most cases the artist would produce a painting, and when it was approved, would be lithographed with the appropriate text. Razzia still creates his posters from an original painting, a technique not very common in this age. With this new sense of purpose, the need for a new name arose.

Thus, Razzia was born. Over the past 25 years, he has conceived some of the most memorable images in order to grace the contemporary market place. Razzia lives and works in Paris, and has done numerous posters for Louis Vuitton world-wide, including the Parc de Bagatelle Concours d’Elegance and the America’s Cup Challenge. He has also done artwork for various restaurants in the United States and Europe, as well as the Cannes Film Festival, Monte Carlo Country Club, and many others.

We are proud to have been working with Razzia for the last 15 years, and you can see many of his images on our website, at www.arteauto.com. Razzia has found his niche by creating compositions that blend perfectly with advertising posters.