Serge Gladky Art Deco Yellow & Orange Pochoir

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Serge Gladky (b.1880 – d. 1930s) was a graphic artist and architect who created fantastic ornamental and geometric patterns in … Read more Serge Gladky (b.1880 – d. 1930s) was a graphic artist and architect who created fantastic ornamental and geometric patterns in the abstract, mostly inspired by nature and animals. His work contributed to the cultural transition from the Art Nouveau movement to the Art Deco movement. Gladky’s work features sleek lines, broad curves, sharp angles and zigzags. All qualities that run counter to the ornate, curvy style of Art Nouveau.
Like many other French artists at the time, Gladky was a big fan of the pochoir technique (a labor intensive process in which brilliant colors are applied by hand using different stencils).
What is a pochoir? Basically it is a stencil. In 1920s and ‘30s France, the increased use of machine printing and the poor quality of color reproduction in publishing brought about a need for pochoir printing. Gladky is regarded as one of the pioneers of the modern pochoir process.
In creating a pochoir, an illustration to be duplicated was sorted carefully by color layer. Usually a base image of black and white lithograph was printed first with each layer of color then printed over the black and white layer.
Separate stencils were cut, sometimes in thin sheets of copper, zinc, or aluminum, for every color component. Later stencil materials were made of celluloid or plastic and contemporary stencil materials are made of coated paper or acetate. Each successive color layer, using watercolor or gouache, was applied to the stencil with a pompom brush. Because of the layered process, it was necessary to blot the pigment on the brush before applying it to the stencil and in the case of watercolor images, this was even more critical. The more stencils that were used, the more detailed and rich the resulting print looked.

Gladky, a master of the Art Deco movement had the genius of adopting the pochoir process for his modernist work. He stated that his inspiration for these pochoirs came from nature, either landscapes or wild creatures, and that his eastern travels provided influence as well. See less