Advertising is a dark art. After all, subterfuge is usually required to convince someone to become a customer. But commerce can be a source of amusement. Think of the Super Bowl, for instance: a sizable chunk of the audience tunes in each year to see new ads rather than the game itself.
A couple of the artists on display tried to subvert the ad-poster medium. Théophile Alexandre Steinlen was able to insert social commentary into his work and occasionally irritate the constraints of polite society. His La Traite Blanche (White Slavery) was censored because one of the prostitutes portrayed in it was bare breasted; he grudgingly covered her up with a lacy brassiere, but even so his sympathy for the plight of working girls is unmistakable. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec greatly empathized with those in the demimonde—he sometimes lived in brothels, and was a fixture in nightclubs alongside the performers he illustrated.
Through 1/7/18: Tue-Sun 10 AM-5 PM Driehaus Museum 40 E. Erie 312-482-8933driehausmuseum.org $20, $12.50 seniors, $10 students and kids 12 and under, free for members
