Interbellum - 1918-1940

As was the case with the economy, it took poster art a good deal of time and effort to recover from the consequences of the First World War. For some time, many designers remained bound to the anecdotal and historical form design of the turn of the century. The major reason for this lack of development was the lack of any special education or training in commercial graphic design. This was not introduced until 1926 with the establishment of the Brussels "Institute Ter Kameren / La Cambre" with Henry van de Velde als director. A large number of graphic designers who graduated from this institution would later make their names in the thirties.

The search for a modern, stricter form of typography and composition found expression for the first time in the form of the very promising works of the then young talents, Jozef Peeters, Jos Leonard and Marcel-Louis Baugniet. However, their influence was insufficient to bring about a reorientation of Belgian poster art. There were many proponents of expressionism and Art Deco in Belgium.

Francis Delamare felt very much at home in the latter direction. He himself was greatly influenced by the works of Cappiello and Jean d'Ylen. The arrival of Leo Marfurt from Switzerland finally brought a new direction to applied art. International currents, such as cubism, futurism, purism, Bauhaus and surrealism, left their traces in national artistic cration, and once again brought Belgian poster art up ro an internationally recognized standard. For decades, Marfurt's ideas dominated the Belgian poster art scene.