The French contribution to graphic design in the twentieth century is no more apparent than its rich heritage and continuing tradition of poster art that appears on the streets of France and in art museums all over the world. France is credited with having initiated this art form in the late nineteenth century with the extraordinary efforts of Jules Charet who brought color, images, and lithography together with words that conveyed information as well as invention in communicating messages to the public. In the twentieth century the poster literally becomes the art of the street, as advertising is transformed into visual pleasure for the passerby. With the emergence of the poster as an avenue of opportunity for artists interested in reaching diverse audiences with their drawings and lithographs, experiments with the medium of the poster bear the names of painters Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Pierre Bonnard, Pablo Picasso, and Henri Matisse. Some of these artists innovated the gallery poster, designed for the specific purpose of advertising an exhibition of their work. The intention of this poster was not to reproduce a work in the exhibition, but to allow the artist the freedom of conceiving a new image that responds to the poster medium. Working with other such lithograph ateliers (studios) as Mourlot in Paris, the results were also printed on heavier paper and editioned for collectors in the art world. Other artists, focused more exclusively on the realm of visual advertising, developed their art solely for the commisions of their clients. From announcing events to advertising merchandise, these artists directed their posters to the art of persuasion, engaging in the attention of the audience to try new experiences or to purchase the company products. With such a clearly defined goal, the medium evolved with the times, responding to the visual trends in avant -garde art movements -- Cubism, Surrealism, and later, Pop Art. The poster also developed new visual criteria of its own, owing to the basic requirement of attracting the attention of the audience. Leonetto Cappiello working in Paris throughout his career, eliminated inessentials from his posters and used what he called "the science of the blot," a means of contrasting the poster with its environment so that it would not compete for attention. To this end he placed a figure on against a stark background, giving it an activity to perform that related to the product while minimizing the text. The text itself was subjected to manipulation for the sake of design in the posters of A. M. Cassandre. Working in Paris in the 1930's, Cassandre described the lettering as "the star of the wall stage because it alone is charged with telling public the magic formula it sells." With this objective in mind, Cassandre's posters incorporate the text into the image, allowing the typography to become a graphic element of the picture. Twentieth-century poster artists earned their place in history not only through their innovative designs, but through their identification with certain advertisers with whom they established a long-term relationship. Bernard Villemot's images sold such products as Orangina drink and Bally shoes from the 1950s through the 1980s. Villemot stated that "a good poster must be a telegram." Subsuming words to images in his posters, visual power alone conveys the message, which is clearly evident in his first poster for Orangina published in 1953. Artists of the French poster established graphic design criteria that crossed cultural barriers, facilitating accessiblity to the messages their advertisers desired. Evolving their art from an emphasis on text at the beginning of the twentieth century, the artists subsequently placed their focus on pictorial means to bring universal legibility to an international public. As this evolution is observed, the discovery of individual masters emerges to recount a history rich in visual pleasure not only for the audience of the street, but for the audience of the museum as well. The exhibition, Masters of the French Poster, surveys issues of graphic design and advertising communications with a view of contributions by individual artists of the twentieth century whose innovations define distinctive cultural, artistic, and historical trends. Joseph and Ann Silbough, who have collected French posters for many years, have generously established a major collection of these works at Susquehanna University for future study of this medium by students, scholars, and the general public.   Orangina. Bernard Villemot. Lithograph on paper. 1953. 36.5 x 27.5"