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A framed print of Voltaire: Candide, 1983, by Boris Bućan.
Voltaire’s best-known play, Candide, is a satire chronicling the hardships and horrors encountered by the eponymous hero as he travels around the world, experiences that gradually erode his positive perception of human nature. In it, Voltaire ridiculed society’s most “sacred” institutions, among them the Church, the military, and the class system, decrying what he saw as the misguided optimism of much Enlightenment thought.
The composition of this poster for the Croatian National Theatre in Split is directly taken from a little-known 1954 photograph of Yugoslavian President Josip Broz Tito inspecting the border guards in Koper, a port city that had just been annexed by Yugoslavia under the Trieste Accord. By using Tito as a stand-in for Candide, Bućan subtly mocks the Communist dictator and his penchant for making grand visits to African countries.
Boris Bućan was a Croatian artist and graphic designer of Ukrainian-Jewish heritage whose long career began during the late 1960s in Zagreb. Not committed to a single style, he continuously developed his artistic practice, often appearing to anticipate art movements that emerged outside what was then the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
Lightweight plastic frame. Measures 15.8 x 15.8 inches.
