Alexis Kow (1901-1978) Ice Hockey Match 1951

Alexis Kow, known as Kow, was a French cartoonist, poster artist, illustrator and model maker, born on September 17, 1901 in Moscow and died on May 12, 1978 in Paris (12th).

At birth, he was given the first name of his paternal grandfather Alexis Kojevnikov, a renowned neurologist and psychiatrist.
Following the events of the Russian Revolution of 1905, his father, an academic, man of letters and Russian polyglot journalist, left his country and entrusted his son's education to a private school in Lausanne, which taught him French in particular, and he then joined the Collège Technique des Arts et Métiers in Geneva. He arrived in Paris in 1920, where he was employed in the design office of a coachbuilder in Levallois-Perret. It was in 1922 at Panhard et Levassor that he truly began his career as an advertising cartoonist. The success of his poster for a torpedo, captioned "Fast as an arrow", made him known to car manufacturers.
He specialized in car advertising but also produced paintings and sculptures.

This work representing an ice hockey match is dated April 1951. It is signed A. Kow at the bottom right.

With its frame, the dimensions: 86 x 45 centimeters

Alexis Kow obtained French nationality in January 1940. He continued his professional activity almost until his death in 1978. His sought-after posters fetch high prices and have sometimes exceeded the €10,000 mark at auction. Work: From 1922, prestigious brands in the "automobile" sector called on him for their visual advertising (posters, advertisements, sales catalogs), but sometimes also for the development of the final silhouette of a vehicle. His longest collaboration was with Panhard, whose emblematic poster designer he became: from 1922 to 1958 In his drawings, his style is characterized by elegant lines, a pure line, the representation of speed by taut vanishing lines, and the work of contrasts between shadows and reflections. During the 1920s – 1950s, most of his posters were declined in small formats, to be inserted in magazines. Public collections: In addition to the work of Pierre Cornette de Saint-Cyr referenced in the "Bibliography" section, which can be found at the Pompidou Center, some of his works appear in public collections: The Forney Library, a library of the city of Paris specializing in decorative arts, crafts and their techniques, fine arts and graphic arts, holds 12 works by Alexis Kow (posters and poster models, catalogs, files). The collection of the André-Malraux Museum of Modern Art (MuMa) in Le Havre has a 1933 poster project by Alexis Kow for Panhard. Awards: Alexis Kow's work won an award at the Polo de Bagatelle art competition in 1933, where he won the Premier Grand Prix, the highest award.