These inaugural Stick No Bills® Barcelona twin designs cast grandstand views, split seconds apart, onto an adrenaline-fuelled moment of glory that took place ninety-nine years ago, in October 2023, in Sitges on the affluent southwest coast of Barcelona province.
For our 2022 entrée onto ‘La Peninsula’, we imagine our way back into one thrilling moment in time when Frenchman, Albert Divo, accelerated his British Sunbeam towards a historic victory at “l’Autòdrom més emocionant del món” in the very first race to officially carry the title Spanish Grand Prix.
Our 1920s femme fatale grips the rail as she witnesses Divo tear through his final laps of the two kilometre oval circuit.
Why did we endeavour to start projecting a sense of place specific to Barcelona through poster art at the outlying town of Sitges-Terramar, of all places?
Because, in spite of being an exceptionally impressive feat of art deco engineering - reportedly built in under 300 days no less - this autodrome has stood empty and abandoned for almost all of its one hundred years of existence.
To us, the race track is like a forgotten jewel, a ghostly yet unashamedly concrete reminder, one year shy of its centenary, of how quickly halcyon days of peace, prosperity and romance can be overshadowed by more troubled times.
Why did we endeavour to capture this unique moment, projecting a defined sense of place, specific to Barcelona, at the outlying town of Sitges-Terramar, of all places?
Left-field as our choice of location may seem, we have courage in our conviction that mainland Europe's first purpose built racetrack serves as a poignant starting point for a visual odyssey within which we hope to encapsulate the ambition, the hedonism and the glamour of Barcelona's bygone eras when the city first rose to global acclaim, becoming renowned as an ornate pinnacle of urban planning and architecture and more generally as a pioneer of industry, technology, art, fashion, athleticism and style.
The hubris of the context (only evident with the benefit of hindsight) makes these two cinematic motifs depicting what poet Robert Browning called 'finite hearts that yearn' all the more impassioned.
For our lovestruck heroine, the first moment is complicated by the penetrating stare of a jealous third protagonist. The second moment shows the jealous man to have suddenly vanished, thereby 'liberating' her, if only for a millisecond, from his possessive gaze.
It is an honour to find ourselves at this exciting point in our own evolution as poster art curators, archivists and designers, on the cusp of helping roll out images old and new that together we hope will serve to help chart the heritage and the projected sense of identity of one magnificent city very close to our - and so many millions of others' - hearts.
We hope, with your support, that we can do justice to the task at hand.
The 1/1 Master Edition (100 x 150cm / 40 x 60" ) Hahnemühle fine art archival giclée with 24 karat gold "BARCELONA" letters will be printed here in Spain, as will all limited editions we produce thereafter.
We are delighted to confirm that each of these two motifs - the twenty second and twenty third in Philip James Baber and Mads Berg's co-created series - are now available to order as a one of a kind 1/1 Master Edition (100 x 150cm / 40 x 60" ) Hahnemühle fine art archival giclée with 24 karat gold leaf printed in Spain.
The 24 karat gold letters will be applied by the British, Palma-based, royal yacht gilder. To reserve yours please email info@sticknobillsonline.com and remember we offer free shipping on orders over GBP 50 or EUR 58 or USD 58 in value.
The twin images are also now available as Museum-Grade Limited Editions, Premium Posters and Postcards for both purchase online and in store and for supply in Premium formats to our retail partners. Fixed percentages of proceeds from all Stick No Bills® sales of these image go to Medicos Sin Fronteras and Save The Med Foundation.
As Premium Posters on FSC-certified art paper the sizes immediately available for order online are as follows:
70 x 100cm inclusive of 8.55cm white border
61 x 91cm inclusive of a 6.5cm white border
50 x 70cm inclusive of a 5cm white border
30 x 40cm inclusive of a 3cm white border
© Exclusive to Stick No Bills® (courtesy of The Poster Design Group® [UK] Ltd) @sticknobillsposters www.sticknobillsonline.com.
Art Direction: Philip James Baber; illustration: Mads Berg.
Proceeds from all Stick No Bills® sales of this image go to Medicos Sin Fronteras and Foundation Save The Med.
© exclusive to Stick No Bills® (courtesy of The Poster Design Group® [UK] Ltd.), @sticknobillsposters www.
