3. J. Chéret, Bal Valentino, 1869.

Illustrated pictures painted by professional inscription artists, on the-spot set designers or self-taught folk painters on big panels made out of thick cloth, were the necessary advertising accessories for various circuses, travelling troupes and other spectacles. They promised entertainment, generated interest for the extraordinary, and covered building façades or other venues hosting all kinds of recreational activities in 19th-century European cities.
It is not by chance, then, that the first such image printed on paper, purely for advertising purposes, was the poster for the theatrical play “The Woman in White” by Frederick Walker (1840-1875), which circulated in London in 1871. It is the first “high quality poster” and “the first important work in the history of poster illustration”1. The poster was created from an impressive sketch by Walker (Fig.1) which was then printed as a woodcut (Fig. 2). The title of the play was added on the top and the name of the theatre at the bottom. Its effect on the public was tremendous, owing not only to its size, but mainly to the strong impression made by the enigmatic female figure it displayed.

The most important technical development that had an impact on the production and spread of posters, was the application of color lithography from the middle of the 19th century, slowly at first and much more widely later. In Paris, especially, the spread of various music and dance establishments (cabarets), featuring scheduled periodical appearances of singers and actors, required the appropriate advertising. Apart from the posting of advertising material on walls, the municipality of Paris introduced the now famous vespasiennes, specially designed cylindrical kiosks placed on central sidewalks.
Jules Chéret 1836-1933), who is considered to be the first important artist to have drawn posters of a recreational content, founded his own lithograph atelier in Paris in 1866, with lithographic press machines that could print large-size posters. He was soon known as a “Maître de l’Affiche”. Chéret experimented with color lithography for the creation of large-scale advertising material. His drawing skills, which were in tune with the subjects he illustrated, revealed his unique talent in the thematic illustration of spectacles.
Typical of his style is the sense of motion his drawings seem to transmit, underlining his influence from 18th-century rococo painting. He dominated Paris in the 1870’s and 80’s and produced more than 2.000 different posters for various products and spectacles (Fig. 3).

4. H. de Toulouse-Lautrec,
Reine de Joie, 1892

5. H. de Toulouse-Lautrec,
Jane Avril, 1893

At the other side of the spectrum one can find Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901), who becomes fascinated by the dynamic of the poster in the 1890’s. His peculiar idiosyncrasy, his familiarity with the actors, singers and all other characters of the musical scenes, as well as the cabaret owners, led him into the realm of poster illustration. Influenced by Japanese woodcarving, Toulouse-Lautrec borrowed the dynamic lines, the solid colors and strange perspectives, adjusting them to his own images. The outcome was a group of posters of an intense painterly quality and great communicative strength that, to this day, are still considered unsurpassed2 (Figs 4 and 5).

At the time, spectacle posters circulated in England, depicting the dramatic content of the theatrical plays they advertised. They were mass-produced in workshops and focused on narrative scenes, stressing the special character of each play. These types of posters continued to be produced until the middle of the 20th century, uninfluenced by the technological advances in the graphic arts. They are mentioned here – and this is crucial – because they were the original sources for cinema posters, where the aim was the emotional engagement of a large audience.
At the end of the 19th century, the influence of the avant-garde in French and  English posters spread across the globe, thanks to exhibitions and magazines like Les Maîtres de l’Affiche (Paris 1896-1900) and The Poster (London 1898 1900).
The next notable development in poster design takes place in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century through Das Plakat magazine (Berlin 1910-21). Regardless of the avant-garde developments in poster creation a powerful advertising medium by then the increasing popularity of the cinema in Europe was accompanied by advertising material which is by no means comparable to the developments in poster illustration in other fields. At the beginning of the 20th century, Hollywood film production imposed the American advertisers’ preference for photographic images on film posters. For film producers, the image of the lead actor, which was a guaranty for the film’s success, was the basic information they sought to transmit to the audience.

Around 1910, advertising agencies started capitalizing on actors like Charlie Chaplin and Shirley Temple, whose success on the big screen had turned them into household names. Following World War I, American films turned to the fresh demand for exotic elements and an escape from the hard everyday life.

Actors appeared in different costumes in action sequences that promised excitement and passion (Figs 6 and 7). These developments and trends in film advertisement in Europe had, as can be expected, a direct impact on Greece. The Greek “advertisers” of the time, set designers and painters, adopted the successful and widespread practices used in film advertising abroad. The “décor” –this was the term used for this kind of cinema decoration– first appears on the façades and cinema foyers in downtown Athens in the beginning of the 1920’s and resembles set decoration (Fig. 8).

Over time, it becomes limited to the cinema façade and often spreads over to the two or three side-entrance columns, depending on the needs and advertising capacity of each space, but also on the abilities of the craftsmen. Décor creation was up to that time the work of craftsmen and self-taught painters and was a closed profession. Naturally, set designers working on décor up to that time, found it difficult to free themselves from the conventions imposed on the creation of naturalistic set designs. Theater sets were three dimensional and complemented the action on stage. Designers now had to create a two-dimensional image that would function both as a source of information and as an invitation to the public, all in an original work of art. The only common characteristics of their works were the large dimensions of the compositions. There were a number of elements to be considered for a successful end result: the power of a given message, the element of surprise, the poster’s decorative function and the combination of image and text.

Among the first artists who were engaged in thisart form, one can find the names of set designers like Theodoros Armenopoulos, Yiannis Ambelas, Mitsos Makris and Kostas Kouzounis. In the mid-930’s, painter Stefanos Almaliotis initiated the so-called “School of Athens” in decor creation. Almaliotis worked for a living in a decor workshop during his time as a student at the School of Fine Arts3. He continued working in the field, created a model workshop and formed a circle of students who continued his work.

Almaliotis was the artist who contributed towards the acceptance of décor as an independent artistic form. He abandoned the prevailing approach, oriented towards set design, and freed compositions from their limited narrative boundaries. He dared to draw realistically, rejected minor conventional solutions and relied on the intense, dramatic brushstroke.

Giant posters painted by Stefanos Almaliotis, displayed at the cinema ORFEFS for the films THE WIZARD OF OZ and BUCK PRIVATES, 1939, 1941.

Thus, a new group of artists was formed, which shaped the features of a unique artistic expression known as the “Painted Giant cinema poster”4. The artists who composed this group were: Stefanos Almaliotis, Nikolaos Andreakos, Vangelis Fainos, Kostas Grigoriadis, Marios Hondroyannis, George Kouzounis, Kostas Kouzounis, Nikos Nikolaidis, Manolis Panayotopoulos, Charalambos Serasis, Gerasimos (Memas) Touliatos,
George Vakirtzis and Andreas Vazopoulos. In 1953, Kostas Grigoriadis, in a last time attempt to follow the old style of theater set designers, installed on the façades of the ATHINAION cinema, a replica of Westminster Abbey, using it as a “décor” in order to advertise the film ELIZABETH IS QUEEN.

Examining the development in the plastic expression of Giant poster painters, we can observe that, on the whole, the artists distanced themselves from the realm of set design and followed an independent evolution course. The birth and development of the phenomenon called the “Athenian School of Giant cinema poster painting” as a continuation of the preceding “Athenian School in décor” was the result of many factors, such as the opening of many cinema theaters in the center of Athens, which opted for this particular means of advertising, and the simultaneous presence of many extremely talented artists in the business. The space itself dictated its own particular “laws”. The panels installations on cinema façades were usually located under wide shelters, were long and placed in a special position: they were semi-openair, rising high above the street, amply lighted by artificial (neon) light during the evening opening hours, and under natural light during the rest of the day.