THE JAZZ AGE – Artwork Tab

PAUL COLIN

The artwork for The Jazz Age album is comprised of illustrations by the renowned French poster artist Paul Colin. Born in 1892, Colin enjoyed a career spanning over 40 years.

Breathing new life into the art of the poster – Colin’s work brilliantly evokes the music, dance and reckless energy of the Jazz Age. Seeking to re-embrace life, Parisians saw African-American music and dance as a regenerative force, and Colin brought the Jazz Age visually alive with his bold posters of the performers at the Theatre des Champs-Elysees. Influenced by cubism, Colin’s images arrest attention with their appearance of movement and strong, exaggerated lines; they capture, perhaps more than any other works of art, the wild, carefree mood of the Roaring Twenties.

In 1925 a cast of musicians and dancers known as La Revue Nègre exploded onto the stage of the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, captivating audiences with the wild movement of erotic new dances like the Charleston. Inspired by their popularity, Colin celebrated these dancers in a portfolio of 45 hand-coloured lithographs entitled Le Tumulte Noir, portraying the Parisian infatuation with these performers. It was here that Colin first encountered the bewitching Josephine Baker during a rehearsal in which she performed wearing little more than a string of feathers around her waist and neck. They became lovers, life-long friends, and she his muse.

Colin’s strong, dynamic images still transport us back into the heady swing of the Jazz Age.