The Greatest Show on Paper and Stone: Carnival and Circus Lithography 18801940

When Parisian print dealer Edmond Sagot glimpsed the market for Henri Toulouse-Lautrecs posters of Montmartre nightlife a realization emerged of the distinct and colorful carnivalesque appeal of posters as both advertisements and works of art. Such a mixture of high and low pleasures formed the essence of La Belle Époque and the relatively new form of lithography lent itself well to capturing the eras blend of carnival and circus. Jules Chéret Alphonse Mucha and many other European artists mastered the form. Meanwhile in the United States such companies as Strobridge and Otis carried forward that momentum in visually defining the nations traveling productions deep into the first half of the twentieth century. In this lecture Dr. Taylor Hagood explores the medium of lithography and the technical cultural and historical forces that wedded it to European and American entertainment and produced a body of visual work at once edgy and nostalgic. Taylor Hagood Ph.D. lectures on literature art history travel music and the history of magic. His publications include the C. Hugh Holman Award-winning Faulkner Writer of Disability and Secrecy Magic and the One-Act Plays of Harlem Renaissance Women Writers. A former Fulbright Professor at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet in Munich Germany he is currently Professor of American Literature at Florida Atlantic University.,