by María Carmen Bernáldez

German Aloys Senefelder discovered the lithography procedure around 1796. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, wood engravings developed and engravings were printed with metal and later stone (litho), thus, lithography was relegated to commercial purposes and especially to the production of posters.

The main function of the poster has been and continues to be to advertise a commercial product or service. Spanish posters has performed its function, always supporting the different artistic movements of each decade. Initially, our outstanding costumbrist painters designed posters  transporting their beautiful canvases to paper. Then posters had curled borders and modernist goddesses, later, the decorative arts left its trail designing elegant women with fashionable hairstyles, chic dresses and exquisite jewellery. The graphic arts of the late 50s and early 60s, studied the fecundity, imagination and mastery of the techniques for the creation of commercial posters. The -isms of the twentieth century also left traces in numerous posters, as well as the regressive tendencies and the avant-garde. All of these trends have been means of expression and communication. Therefore, we could say that Spanish posters not only represent the history of advertising, but also the history of Spanish painting.

Possibly many of us could not have a García y Ramos, a Riquer or a Tapies at home, however this genre of minor art, which is the poster, allows many of us to acquire and display on our walls posters designed not only by those mentioned artists, but many others. For me it is fantastic to admire how Ramón Casas paints the advertisement for an anise, or simply how Miró paints the advertisement for an exhibition for the College of Architects of the Canary Islands.