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Poster, An American in Paris, Théâtre du Châtelet
This is a Poster. It is dated 2014 and we acquired it in 2015. Its medium is screenprint on paper. It is a part of the Drawings, Prints, and Graphic Design department.
French graphic designer and typographer Philippe Apeloig knows something about being a foreigner in a glamorous city—for five years he lived in New York working as a designer and teaching at Cooper Union and the Rhode Island School of Design. Apeloig has designed stunning theater posters for Châtelet since 2006, including Street Scene (2012), which is in Cooper Hewitt’s collection. Nevertheless, he was particularly enthusiastic about the opportunity to create the poster for the French production of the classic musical, An American in Paris. Apeloig has long been a devotee of modern dance, and his inspiration for the design was drawn directly from the choreography of Gene Kelly, who is best known for his portrayal of Jerry Mulligan, the American in the musical. From the beginning, Apeloig knew that his image would include the Eiffel Tower, and the question was how he would make the iconic, rigid iron structure dance. His solution was to reconceive of the monument in typographic form. While the elegant shape of the Eiffel Tower is retained, its inelastic lines become sinuous, curving back and forth as though the architectural form were the body of a dancer. Apeloig ingeniously created a double image, so that two corporeal Eiffel Towers appear to dance with each other.
It is credited Gift of Philippe Apeloig in honor of Gail Davidson.
- Sidewall, Views of Paris
- screen-printed paper.
- Gift of Harvey Smith.
- 1950-126-4-a,b
- Sidewall (possibly USA)
- machine printed on paper.
- Gift of Suzanne Lipschutz.
- 1991-89-121
- Shopping Bag, Marshall Field's: La Belle France
- paper.
- Gift of Judith G. Bergoffen.
- 2000-53-11
Our curators have highlighted 3 objects that are related to this one.
- Poster, Okay, Bye
- four-color offset lithograph on white paper.
- Gift of Geoff McFetridge.
- 2017-25-1
![Poster, 1960/61 Stadttheater Basel [Poster for the 1960-61 Season of the City Theater, Basel]](https://images.collection.cooperhewitt.org/357790_df97639d74565ca1_n.jpg "Poster, 1960/61 Stadttheater Basel [Poster for the 1960-61 Season of the City Theater, Basel]")
- Poster, 1960/61 Stadttheater Basel [Poster for the 1960-61 Season of the City...
- offset lithograph on white wove paper.
- Gift of Ken Friedman.
- 1997-19-148
![A vertically rectangular poster framed with a white border depicting a bluescale image of the head of a woman, Jenifer Lewis, with a bouffant, 1960s hairdo, contrasted against a bright yellow, solid background. She has an unrestrained, urgent, possibly distressed expression on her face, with a jaw-dropped open mouth, wrinkled forehead, long-eyelashed eyes wide, and eyebrows raised. The left half of her face is in shadow, slightly obscuring her features, while the right half is overexposed and bright white. Black sans serif text, outlined in orange, in bold, capitalised letters of varying weights and spacing, expands from her mouth, as though she is shouting or singing the words, in a windmill-like projection with four diagonal axes. Going clockwise from the left the text states [THE / DIVA / IS DISMISSED / CO-WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY / CHARLES / RANDOLPH-WRIGHT / CO-WRITTEN AND PERFORMED BY / JENIFER LEWIS / LIMITED ENGAGEMENT! / NOW PLAYING!]. Most of the words are oriented from left to right on a diagonal, except for two words, [THE] & [CHARLES], which are oriented vertically. In the top right corner, aligned vertically along the right margin, is some additional text, which states: [THE], which is orange and aligned right to left and upside down; [PUBLIC] which is black with an orange outline and aligned vertically top down; [THEATER], which is black with an orange outline and aligned horizontally. Below this is the logo of the theater, a black circle with a stylised orange [S] inside and the words [SHIVA / THEATER] in orange capitals. Below the logo is the address and phone number of the theater; [425 LAFAYETTE STREET (212) 598-7150]. In the top left corner, in tiny black font is some text that is illegible, aligned vertically along the left margin.](https://images.collection.cooperhewitt.org/80074_7f51450f46fe4e37_n.jpg "Poster, The Diva is Dismissed, 1994")
- Poster, The Diva is Dismissed, 1994
- screenprint on paper.
- Gift of Paula Scher.
- 1996-88-17
Its dimensions are
149.9 × 100.3 cm (59 in. × 39 1/2 in.)
Cite this object as
Poster, An American in Paris, Théâtre du Châtelet; screenprint on paper; 149.9 × 100.3 cm (59 in. × 39 1/2 in.); Gift of Philippe Apeloig in honor of Gail Davidson; 2015-34-2
This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition Saturated: The Allure and Science of Color.
