Currently on exhibition at the “Musée d’Orsay” of Paris is a collection of late  19th and early 20th century posters, advertisements and music all centering around the works of art found in the street. Art in the street is one of the most important art forms to our public consciousness. It is an art exhibited to the public with no separation from our quotidian lives. It is a part of our lives in support of what we experience, media that increasingly coalesces with our steps, our work, our commute, and places itself in our community. The Orsay Museum has taken the opportunity to revisit such advertisements to show certain mutable aspects of street art.

The first two works discussed are the posters “Absinthe-Chinoise” by an anonymous illustrator in 1862 and “Folies-Bergère Les Almées” by Jules Chéret in 1874. These two posters are incredible, not only in quality of the conservation, but equally in composition. Stamped from wood, “Absinthe-Chinoise” witnesses the production and consumption of a brand of absinthe created just after the French involvement in the Second Opium War, where Napoleon’s forces looted Chinese temples and political offices until they returned in 1861. This poster presents an orientalist idea of four Chinese people, two children and two adults, getting served absinthe by a French bartender. On the ground, an opium pipe is propped against a bag with a cartoon of a building with  poorly depicted Chinese architecture. 

What interests me the most in the advertising here is under the stamp, where the poster reads “Chinese-Absinthe advantageously replaces absinthe without any of the inconveniences.” This poster is a small part of commercial Chinoiserie, the Western interest and imitation of China’s goods, people and culture. “Absinthe-Chinoise” presents Chinoiserie at one of its heights after the Second Opium War, when looted and traded goods were displayed in Paris for all to see. The Orsay Museum provided little context for such a poster.

In “Folies-Bergère Les Almées” we see a cyclone of four women swinging their arms, dancing on bare feet, their clothes swaying in harmony with what can only be imagined as an intense choreography. Red, white and pale green stripes twist and turn as the dancers approach one another in a whirl of limbs, scarves and stares. The title refers to a Western reimagination of Egyptian female dancers and singers. In this poster, we see the theme of the Almah, now commonly reduced to “belly dancer,” being consumed by the crowd craning their crooked necks and contorted faces to edge closer to the dancers. 

To move further, I would like to pose a question: is our perspective the same as the original audience? We take fervent delight in seeing these women dance behind a pane of glass in one of the most visited museums of the world. I stood in front of them, twisting my neck in curiosity and admiration of how their bodies moved and swayed in the still lithograph print.

This is the power of art in the street. On the street, a work is no longer is a private relationship between the artist, work and owner. Art on the street is an imposition, a public shout, a cry from the mountaintops, especially when such art is replicated en masse. We, the public, see these works. We consume en masse the tiny details, miniscule distinctions and powerful messages. Street art is a present vehicle in our society and has been for so long. As we, the people, grow more comfortable in the world of advertisements and publicity, always think about what you see, hear and consume.