Budapest Poster Gallery

2. Auktion | Plakate und Plakatentwürfen

95 x 63 cm. Very good, restored, backed on linen.

Jantschi successfully depicts the movements of a gymnast in an art deco style. The gymnastics world championship took place in Budapest, from May 31st to June 3rd, 1934. The article on the closing ceremony of the championship reflects the political atmosphere of the era: “A few minutes after 4 o'clock, the national anthem starts to play, the governor arrives with his wife and his two sons. He takes his box seat, and the young soldiers (these young soldiers were called‘levente’ in Hungarian. They were 20-21 year-old boys whose military training was one of the most important parts of the military preparation between 1920 and 1945) performed with flags in the pouring rain. After their performance the weather took pity on the audience, and it stopped raining. Städing, the substitute of the German sport dictator, sits in the box seat, wearing his uniform with a swastika. (...) Following the performances of the young soldiers the procession of the gymnasts, the Swedish winners, the Germans, Italians, Bulgarians, French, Polish and the other teams came. 1500 Germans came to hearten the gymnasts, and now they are passing by the tribunes holding giant flags with swastikas. “ The article proves that the Nazi Germany played an important role on the championship organized in Budapest before World War II.
Béla Jantchi pictures the ideal beauty of the age on his poster: muscular blonde man presenting a perfect exercise. The composition is clean and easily understandable, where the positioning of the text is just as harmonious as all the other parts. The beauty of the poster lies in its simplicity: it grabs a typical move which at the same time presents the beauty of the sport as well.
Jantschi was a student of the School of Fine Art between 1923 and 1931. He started to work as an illustrator and an applied graphic designer in the 1930s. He has numerous famous posters: in 1935 he designed a poster for another gymnastics championship, but he also created two impressive pieces for the zoo. He applies a classicizing style on his compositions, which was a typical trend of poster art at the time: the classicizing art deco style appeared initially on György Konecsni's travel posters.
(Anikó Katona)