NAPOLI

André Francois (1915 – 2005) A graphic arts master whose protean career forms a bridge from the beginnings of modern graphic design to the present, André François was born November 9, 1915 in Timisoara, a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire that shortly afterwards became Romania. He briefly attended the Beaux-Arts school in Budapest before moving to Paris to study with the great A.M. Cassandre. On the latter’s recommendation, young André designed his first posters for the famed French department store Galeries Lafayette, and then was commissioned to produce graphic works for the 1937 World Exhibition in Paris. At that same time François also began creating cartoons. Since the 1940’s, his exquisitely witty and elegantly executed illustrations have earned him an enduring international career, appearing in such well-known newspapers and magazines asAction, Architecture d’Aujourd’hui, Elle, Le Fou Parle, Haute Société, Le Nouvel Observateur, Réalités, Record, La Tribune des Nations, Vogue, Lilliput, The Observer, Punch, Fortune, Holiday, Look and The New Yorker, for which François created a total of 57 covers. François has been illustrating books since 1946, including the works of Diderot, Jacques Prevert, Alfred Jarry and Boris Vian, as well as his own. Robert Delpire, with whom François has enjoyed a long friendship, publishes many of his books, including the well-known Crocodile Tears. Their other collaborations include numerous posters for Citroën and Nouvel Observateur, to name but a few. In England, François became friends with Ronald Searle and Germano Facetti, art director of Penguin Books, for whom he designed countless book covers. He also designed playing cards for Natasha Kroll, art director of Simpson Piccadilly.