Depero and black and white Campari

16 January 2017

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Between 1925 and 1928, Fortunato Depero churned out a huge number of advertisement sketches for Campari, the liqueur and beverage company that Milanese entrepreneur Davide Campari led at the time.

As Maurizio Scudiero has explained, the Rovereto-born artist would never have encountered the brand “without the intermediation of Fedele Azari, an aviator, poet, networker, publisher, collector, ‘bon vivant’ of Milan’s high society, and most importantly a fan and great friend of Depero’s.”

One might wonder why Davide Campari preferred black and white drawings over Depero’s typical “colorism”.

Scudiero explains that “he chose black out of marketing reasons: the Campari campaign had a specific target – a cultured consumer who habitually read the newspaper, where most of the black and white advertisements by the Roverto-born artist were published” (translated from “Depero. L’uomo e l’artista” by Maurizio Scudiero, Egon, Rovereto 2009).

Here is a selection of advertisement ads and sketches of Campari products, created by Depero in the 1920s.

Photos via: ©Eredi Depero, ©Archivio Depero, ©Casa d’Arte futurista Depero, ©Collezione Davide Campari

On the left: "Se la pioggia fosse Bitter Campari", 1927, print ad in the "bolted book", Archivio Depero; on the right: "Cordial Campari Liquor", 1927-28, print ad cutout, Archivio Depero