On December 4th, 2014, San Francisco’s graphic design. giant Primo Angeli inaugurated his latest exhibit “Primo Angeli: A Retrospective” at the Museo Italo Americano, celebrating his illustrious career with numerous family, friends, and specially invited guests.
The exhibit includes over fifty pieces of artwork and an amazing reproduction of Angeli’s most renowned logos. Walking through the Museo’s galleries is akin to taking a journey through Primo’s fifty year career encapsulated in a matter of minutes: time traveling through different eras and trends in graphic design.
The exhibit features a diverse collection of celebratory designs commissioned to Primo Angeli for different Olympic and sporting events including the: Atlanta Olympics (1996), World Series (1997), World Cup Competition, France (1998), Nagano, Japan Olympic Winter Games -in occasion of the U.S. Olympic Team’s entry into the Games- (1998), Salt Lake City Olympics (2000), London Olympics (2012) – just to name a few.
The impact of Primo Angeli’s art on the sports field has been so resounding that in 2012, the President and CEO of the United States Sports Academy, Thomas P.Rosandich, named him “Sports Artist of the Year for 2013” in the graphic arts division. Primo considers his poster designs as a personal endeavor and states: “Over the years I had put aside my work for play, that essentially had an influence on design for industry. The celebratory posters were not meant to be competitive with design for industry. I had an interest in both and I would not let one damage the other”.
The exhibit also showcases a selection of famous innovative branding and packaging including: Ben & Jerry’s, Boudin Bakery, DHL, Dogbolter, Guinness, Henry Weinhard, Lipton, Molinari & Sons, and Zima. In addition, the visitors will find a surprising bonus: original panels of modular art and sketches of exterior polychromatic geometric wall murals designed in the ‘70s.
Primo Angeli hails from West Frankfort, Illinois. The son of Italian immigrants, Anacleto and Candida Maria Angeli, he earned his B.A. degree in painting and printmaking in 1957 and, two years later, his M.A. in communications design, both at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Afterwards, he moved to San Francisco, where he found fertile proving grounds for his art. Says Primo: “When I arrived, the Beatniks were in full bloom, marching, drinking and in sandals, with a laid-back way of living. I had two missions, one was how to get a job in design for industry and the other was how to continue my early desires doing art for art’s sake. When I arrived, trying to get a job, the term graphic design wasn’t even known”.
When asked what his “secret recipe” for a product’s successful packaging and logo is, he replies emphatically that there is no such thing. Explains Angeli “In my studio there is never a formula, each assignment is a new creative experience bringing with it its own criteria and demands for a successful and original outcome, depending on the uniqueness of each design and its target for success. There is always a responsibility to the client for his product’s success in the marketplace”.
A number of Angeli’s designs can be found in permanent collections and exhibitions worldwide, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), Museum of Modern Art (San Francisco), Smithsonian Institution and Library of Congress (Washington, D.C.), Olympic Museum (Lausanne, Switzerland), Cooper-Hewitt Museum of Design (New York), Legion of Honor Museum (San Francisco), Warsaw Poster Collection (Warsaw, Poland), and Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris, France).
“Primo Angeli: A Retrospective” at the Museo Italo Americano in San Francisco was proposed by director Paola Bagnatori, and made possible by the creativity of curator Mary Serventi Steiner, with the collaboration of Primo’s wife, Deanie Angeli, Marianne Hinckle (Hinckle & Sons Printing Office), and Keith Björkmann (Zebra Graphics).
The imprint of such a remarkable person and talented artist has reverberated in the Bay Area, as well as internationally, proven and felt by the impressive turnout on inauguration night. As Mary Serventi Steiner recalls “The record crowd that came to the opening to pay tribute to a very special man who has had such a huge impact on the world of design, and the way that the room was brimming with the love and respect that the design community has for Primo were very touching. This is what makes my job so rewarding”.
If you wish to enjoy the exhibit’s colorful and inspiring design kaleidoscope through Primo Angeli’s eyes, then you owe it to yourself to visit the Museo. You will leave enriched by the experience, and you will definitely feel a bit closer to this amazing, generous, and multifaceted master of graphic design.
The exhibit will be on display through April 19th, 2015.
The Museo offers free admission and is open Tuesdays thru Sundays, from noon to 4 pm. Mondays by appointment.
Info: www.sfmuseo.org –415.673.2200.
For more information about the exhibit and the artist, contact Mary Serventi Steiner, Curator: sfmuseo@sbcglobal.net.
Bibliography: Primo: Celebratory Posters. Published by Marianne Hinckle at Año Nuevo Island Press, San Francisco, 2012
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