Leonetto CAPPIELLO (1875-1942) - Lot 42

Leonetto CAPPIELLO (1875-1942) Sfer-20 Radiola, 1926 Mixed media. Mounted on canvas. 119.5 x 80 cm Bibliography : Rennert, p. 267, no. 427. The perfecting of radio was a real revolution, now forgotten. For the first time, people could stay at home and be connected to almost the whole world; they could listen to concerts, dance music programs and receive news. Cappiello's graphic design, typical of the 20s, depicts a young woman enchanted by her Sfer-20 device, with its simple operation. His graphic idea is to present the sound waves as predominantly blue waves in which we can read all the cities that are now accessible. In 1928, in a radically more synthetic way, he took up the same idea for Radio LL, stripped of all decorative elements (Rennert, p. 324, no. 528). In both cases - and as always - he did not use an airbrush, which made his creations less "dated" than those of his younger compatriots.