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Gino Boccasile was an Italian artist from the 1920s to the 1950s. He was born in Italy in 1901, and he worked in Milan at an art agency beginning in 1925. He later traveled to France and Argentina, following his teacher, Achille Mauzan. In the 1930s, he returned to Italy, leaving Mauzan behind, and he worked for Pitigrilli, and did posters, art prints, and magazine illustrations. When Mussolini took power in Italy in the late 1930s, Boccasile began creating wild and shocking posters for Benito Mussolini's fascist government, and in the 1940s, he enlisted in the Italian SS Division and produced recruitment and propaganda posters for the Italian army. Some examples of his most outrageous posters include a racist caricature of an African American soldier writing $2 on the Venus di Milo, and a bloody toddler standing over the body of a friend while a U.S. bomber flies overhead and a city burns in the background. Many of his war posters were printed by the "Propaganda Abteilung J" (Propaganda Department J) of the Wehrmacht, which operated in Verona, Italy, and most had no title or signature on them (in most cases, the illustration itself needed no titling!). After the war, Boccasile was imprisoned and tried for collaborating with the fascists. Though acquitted, he remained an outcast and could not find work for several years as the notoriety from his earlier work was feared by prospective employers, and he died in 1952, and he was only 51 years of age. But in spite of the controversial nature of the subject matter of many of his works, many consider him the most important Italian poster artist from 1930 to 1950.

Artist: Gino Boccasile

Important Added Info: Note that this poster is different from many of Gino Boccasile's propaganda war posters, in that it does not have a dark theme. In July of 1943 the Allies invaded Sicily, and in September a secret armistice was signed between the Allies and the new Italian government (who had dismissed and imprisoned Italian dictator Benito Mussolini). On September 11th, a general order was given for the Italian people to rise up against the Germans. Soon, the Allies controlled the South and the Germans (who had quickly rescued Mussolini) controlled the North of Italy. This poster was created to convince the Italian people that German soldiers were still their friends (and the writing on the poster translates to "Germany is Truly Your Friend"), and the art is wonderfully ironic in that it shows a happy Nazi soldier extending his arm in friendship, which is certainly extremely far from the image of a Nazi soldier that we have today. Note that very few of Boccasile's posters from the 1930s and 1940s survive, no doubt in part because of the great paper shortages at that time, and also because of the subject matter. The few times posters like these are offered for sale, the asking price is in the thousands of dollars! Note that this remarkable poster was consigned to us from the owner of the amazing collection of political and war posters which we auctioned on November 19, 2017. He "held back" a few of his most rare and most interesting posters, but he has now consigned those remaining ones to us, and they are being auctioned in this December Major Auction (and this is one of them). It is likely that this poster and the others can only be found in museum collections (if they can be found at all), and this is a very rare opportunity to obtain this poster. Note that this poster has been paperbacked. What is paperbacking? This means the poster was backed onto a light paper backing (acid-free), that is similar in feel to that of the original poster (it means that the poster must be handled carefully, as the backing does not give it much added strength, but it is similar to having an unrestored poster, and yet it has been properly preserved). It is a similar process to linenbacking, except that most collectors use linenbacking for one-sheets and paperbacking for half-sheets, inserts, window cards.

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