Gustav Mezey (also Gustav Masirevits, 1899–1981) was an Austrian artist.
In the early 1920s, Hungarian-born Mezey embarked upon an artistic career that would span more than four decades. His outstanding talent and pioneering spirit made him one of Europe's most recognized commercial artists of his time. Producing advertisements for several well-known companies in
Budapest
Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...
,
Belgrade
Belgrade ( , ;, ; Names of European cities in different languages: B, names in other languages) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers a ...
,
Trieste
Trieste ( , ; sl, Trst ; german: Triest ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital city, and largest city, of the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, one of two autonomous regions which are not subdivided into provi ...
,
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
and
Vienna
en, Viennese
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, he soon specialized in large outdoor poster designs for the newly emerging film industry. From the early 1930s to the late 1950s, he created
movie poster
A film poster is a poster used to promote and advertise a film primarily to persuade paying customers into a theater to see it. Studios often print several posters that vary in size and content for various domestic and international markets. The ...
s and large-scale portraits of
movie star
A movie star (also known as a film star or cinema star) is an actor or actress who is famous for their starring, or leading, roles in movies. The term is used for performers who are marketable stars as they become popular household names and w ...
s in his unique paint/airbrush technique for most of the classic European and American film producers, including UFA, Terra, Tobis, Sascha,
MGM
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...
and
Rank Organisation
The Rank Organisation was a British entertainment conglomerate founded by industrialist J. Arthur Rank in April 1937. It quickly became the largest and most vertically integrated film company in the United Kingdom, owning production, distribu ...
.
During this period Mezey refined his bold, exciting colour compositions to a trend-setting and unparalleled level; yet, in his lifetime, Gustav's talent and skills were only seen as professional tools of advertising. His surviving original artworks have since become rare and valued collector's items.
Mezey artwork exhibitions
* Gewerbehaus - Vienna, 1978 (Kunst im Handwerk)
* Wiener Hofburg - Vienna, 1984 (Film Posters and Star Portraits)
* Ad Art Gallery - Vienna, 1984 (Reklame aus den 30'ern und 40'ern)
* New Art Gallery - Boston, 1997 (Film Poster Design)
* Sydney Graphics College - Sydney, 2005 (Visual Seducers - Three decades of advertising design)
References
*Fritsch, Sibylle. "Roter Schatten, grünes Haar", ''Profil'' No. 25 (June 1984) pp. 58.
*Rudle, Ditta. "Plakative Träume", ''Wochenpresse'' No. 25 (June 1984) pp. 46–47.
*Szene. "Starportraits mit Fußpumpe", ''Der Spiegel'' (June 1984) pp. 115.
{{morecat, date=November 2023
1899 births
1981 deaths