The art of Italian posters

Below: Giocchi di Paroli. Italians would call these posters “playing with words” because they really do. We of course, would just call them outrageous puns. Strangely neither of these posters’ subjects are  Italian heroes per se, so even we can understand them. One is our own American hero Mozzarella of Buffalo Bill. Yes, the mozzarella comes from water buffalos in southern Italy. Who milks a mud covered big horned buffalo, I just don’t know. Also strange that in the land of Parma where I shot this they would be promoting a cheese other than their sacred Parmesan. The other is Lawrence of Arabica Coffee Beans.

Italian posters

Below: Both ends of the spectrum of Italian posters and just the culture in general I say. Italian life and art can be so classy and so refined and then bam! you have nearly naked posters like this and dancing girls in bikinis on the nightly news. Keeps you on your toes. The classy one was in downtown Parma and the racy ones from the Florence airport.

More Italian posters

Group of Pictures Below

Top 4 Pictures: Newstand in Cortona – Train Station in Florence – Hardware store near Perugia – Wall in Panicale
Bottom 2 Pictures: Two walls on Corso Vannucci in Perugia.

Italian Posters: poster at a newsstand in Cortona, Tuscany, poster in train station, Florence, Tuscany, poster in a hardware store near Perugia, Umbria, poster on the wall in Panicale, Umbria, poster, on Benetton’s wall, Corso Vannucci, Perugia, in Umbria, poster, in Perugia, Umbria.

It is Italy, so its no surprise, art is everywhere. I went to art school and so I like a cold, dark church or museum as well as the next person, but many times in Italy I find art right out in the warm Italian sunshine. The Sacred and the Profane, sharing the same wall in Panicale, Umbria.In Italy, posters seem to be more a part of the fabric of daily life and we all see the areas set aside even in small villages for poster display. The repetition of multiple images, the colors, the juxtaposition of one poster to the next makes this form of Italian street art one of the many small pleasures of any trip to Italy. And there are no pesky Italian museum guides saying “niente flash, per favore”!

Left Picture: The Sacred and the Profane sharing the same wall in Panicale.