Ad for Performance by Rosa Ponselle

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"Whether working with an opera singer, an ad, or a book, he sought out and then exploited and cultivated opportunity. An ad for Rosa Ponselle, an artist that Armitage represented, is a graphic effort that through its laid-back attitude sought to overcome a perception that some of his performers were “hand-maidens of genteel women’s club activities.” Armitage wanted to build audiences that were diverse and thus had to convey a point of view that suggested 'informality' in contrast to the fusty, serious approaches to advertising that convey 'the dullness essential to any sort of snobbery.' As he put it to the California Art Club in 1929 'Arriving in California from New York, I was appalled by the anemic, colorless art being produced in the remote and provincial Los Angeles area. Moral, social, and sentimental values were utterly confused with aesthetic values.'"—https://designobserver.com/feature/merle-armitage-daddy-of-a-sunbaked-modernism/35878
Ad for Performance by Rosa Ponselle