Margarine Axa 1931

Curator: Here we have Leonetto Cappiello's 1931 poster, "Margarine Axa". The vibrant emerald backdrop really makes it pop! Editor: Emerald? To me, it screams vintage advertisement – that calculated joviality. It’s got this… unsettling vibrancy, almost sickeningly sweet against the depiction of labour. Curator: You've hit upon a fascinating contrast. Cappiello, famed for his posters, blends Art Deco aesthetics with… yes, the rather blatant commodification of colonial imagery. The figure, so deliberately posed with that enormous cube of margarine, is eye-catching to say the least! Editor: The sheer artificiality of it! The stark juxtaposition: a labourer cheerfully hoisting what is essentially an industrial foodstuff from inside a section of coconut husk that acts like a plinth, and then presented to consumers with that bold sans-serif typography for ‘Margarine Axa.' What are the material roots of AXA’s production here, in relationship to what’s signified? It looks like this ad almost wants you to *not* think too deeply about that... Curator: Precisely, isn’t it? The caricature certainly papers over much. But also consider Cappiello’s sheer artistry in capturing light, color, and conveying a brand message in what was, in its day, a radical, captivating new way. This was high art deployed for very low purposes – I can't look away, though! It's mesmerizing. Editor: Absolutely mesmerizing because it lays bare those tensions. You have got the exploitation packaged and branded with vibrant consumerist delight that is, admittedly, seductive in a strange sort of way, while its material reality of industrialized production remain obscured from that idealist promise. Curator: It certainly highlights uncomfortable truths hidden behind flashy visuals, doesn’t it? Editor: I will definitely be thinking about where margarine comes from every time I walk past it in the store from now on.