Born in Russia, André Pavlovski (1891-1961) brought modernism to basque architecture in the 1930s. For its first publication, I proposed to Kantia editor, based in Saint-Jean-de-Luz (in a beautiful Pavlovski house) to imagine a series of poster inspired by his most emblematic work, the Harbor Lights of the city. Two asymetrical towers, on both sides of the port, one in white and red (Saint-Jean) the other in white and green (Ciboure). I studied Pavlovsky architecural vocabulary, made of flat asymetrical surfaces and geometry, and proposed a complex graphic system to produce a series of posters. 4 compositions present one view of Saint-Jean, one of Ciboure, and two of both harbor lights, in 3 colors : Blue, Red and Green. Blue defines the sky and the silhouettes of the buildings : printed in split fountain, it evolves from dawn to dusk. The composition allows green and red colors to be combined upside up and upside down, to reveal several views of the harbors, and create imaginary ones. In one single print-run, 168 different posters were produced with Lézard Graphique, in Brumath. Some posters are still available at www.kantia.eu. 26 posters of the series were presented at the Rotonde, a beautiful circular gallery by Robert Mallet-Stevens in Saint-Jean de Luz, in Spring 2013.
