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A framed print of La Traviata, 1982, by Boris Bućan.
Based on Alexandre Dumas’s 1852 play La Dame aux camélias, Giuseppe Verdi’s opera La Traviata chronicles the tragic downfall of a courtesan who sacrifices her own happiness and reputation for the man she loves. In this design for the Croatian National Theatre in Split, Bućan shows a lone female figure in a recessed bar area, either examining her stockings or in a state of despair.
This is one of a handful of designs that Bućan made almost entirely out of alternating gold-and-black bands to imply space and depth. The setting is based on the famous bar in Zagreb’s Kavana Corso, a popular haunt for actors. Such visual insider jokes are common in Bućan’s posters. Bućan’s treatment of type in the design is especially daring; he relegates all the information about the production to the lower area of the composition in particularly tiny letters. This choice reinforces the sense that he understood posters primarily as works of art rather than as a means of visual communication.
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.
