Karl Marx - Poéme de Paul Eluard Circa 1980

Created circa 1972 by Grapus, this original French poster brings together a monumental portrait of Karl Marx and verses by the poet Paul Éluard. The text comes from Notre vie, the final poem in Éluard’s 1947 collection Le Temps déborde. By combining revolutionary thought with poetry devoted to love and solidarity, Grapus transforms the traditional political portrait into a reflection on human connection and collective hope.

Marx’s face fills an imposing black rectangle, rendered through a coarse halftone pattern reminiscent of enlarged newspaper photography. A sharply angular, book-like form cuts across the lower portion of the portrait. Its parallel lines suggest pages, creating a striking visual metaphor for Marx’s writings and the continued transmission of his ideas.

Éluard’s words appear in very small white lettering at the top of the composition. The passage moves from the relationship between two people toward a vision in which everyone may know and love one another, leaving loneliness to become only a distant memory. Its intimate scale contrasts with Marx’s enormous face, encouraging the viewer to approach the poster and engage directly with the text.

Founded in 1970 by Pierre Bernard, Gérard Paris-Clavel and François Miehe, Grapus emerged from the visual and political culture surrounding May 1968. The French collective rejected conventional commercial advertising and worked primarily for political, trade-union, social and cultural organizations. Its designs combined photography, collage, handwriting and deliberately raw graphic interventions to make complex ideas immediately visible.

Printed in black-and-white screenprint, this early Grapus poster is particularly appealing to collectors of French political graphics, post-1968 design, Marxist history and literary imagery. Its powerful contrast, important collective authorship and unusual dialogue between Karl Marx and Paul Éluard give it both historical significance and exceptional decorative presence.

Original Poster

Politics - Literature - Poetry

Good condition