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

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and

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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 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 whose names ...

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, commonly shortened to MGM or MGM Studios) is an American Film production, film and television production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered ...

and

Rank Organisation The Rank Organisation (founded as the J. Arthur Rank Organisation) is a British entertainment conglomerate founded in 1937 by industrialist J. Arthur Rank. It quickly became the largest and most vertically integrated film company in the Uni ...

. 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 Austrian artists