From February 25 to March 19, 2022, the 86th International Auction of Rare Posters (Poster Auctions International) will be held at the PAI Gallery in New York City, where rare and cult posters from the end of the 19th century will be offered for sale, reports Jutarnji List.
Among the 425 posters is an anthological poster for Igor Stravinsky’s ballets ‘The Firebird’ (Žar ptica) and ‘Petrushka’ at the Croatian National Theater in Split in 1983, authored by Croatian painter, designer, and graphic artist Academician Boris Bućan, which was also published on the cover of the auction catalog.
“This auction not only features top works by our most beloved artists but also includes rarely seen paintings, models, drawings, and books. From Belle Époque designs by Alfonso Mucha and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec to jazz, Paul Colin, and Charles Loupot fashion, there’s really something special about this collection for every collector,” said Jack Rennert, president of Poster Auctions International.
The ‘The Firebird’ poster price ranges between $10,000 and $ 15,000. According to the auction catalog, the poster is a stunningly original creation, at the same time bizarre, enchanting, and lavish, and thus the perfect design for the mythical rise of imagination evoked by Stravinsky’s ballets.
The ‘The Firebird’ depiction is described as an androgynous obscure Egyptian bird creature posing in red high-heeled shoes, which is more austere than flaming but unquestionably provocative.
Zagreb painter Boris Bućan is one of the most successful Croatian painters. Since 1984, he received more than twenty top international awards and recognitions, including an honor in the representative catalog of the world-famous London Victoria & Albert Museum for one of the most successful posters of the 20th century.
Bućan’s works are displayed in the world’s most renowned museums and galleries (New York, Munich, Essen, Melbourne). In addition, they have been exhibited at more than 70 solo exhibitions (Ljubljana, Edinburgh, Venice, Sarajevo, Shanghai, Ankara, Zagreb, Melbourne, New Jersey, Copenhagen, Adelaide, Jerusalem, Dordrecht, Wiesbaden, Berlin, Osijek, Našice, Rijeka). Bućan has also participated in more than 150 collective exhibitions at home and abroad.
Boris Bućan also received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Croatian Design Society in 2006, while three of his posters have been permanently displayed at MOMA in New York since 2020, writes HAZU.
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