JEAN GUEILLET, 43rd SAD Exhibition Poster, 1963

Jean Gueillet

Poster for the 43rd Salon des Artistes Décorateurs, 1963

43rd Salon des Artistes Décorateurs, held at the Grand Palais in Paris, 3 May–9 June 1963

Offset printed by S.A. Courbet, Paris, 1968

55 × 42 cm

Condition report: condition B−

Reference:

Jean Gueillet was a French graphic designer and poster artist, primarily active during the 1950s and 1960s. His career remains relatively little documented, yet his designs attest to his role in the renewal of post-war French graphic design. A professional text published in 1963 mentions him, alongside his wife Suzanne Pilafore, among the graphic designers working independently.

His work ranged from editorial design to advertising and cultural posters. In 1956, he notably designed a cover for the specialist magazine Publimondial. He subsequently created a poster for the Loterie Nationale in 1957, followed by the important Gauloises Disque Bleu campaign in 1960, whose lithographic poster is now preserved and sought after by collectors.

In 1963, Jean Gueillet designed the poster for the 43rd Salon des Artistes Décorateurs, held at the Grand Palais in Paris. The composition combines flat areas of pink and orange, geometric forms, photomontage and monumental typography. His work illustrates the transition from the traditional illustrated poster to a more radical graphic language informed by geometric abstraction, photographic collage and the emergence of Pop culture.