Partial to a Negroni? Then feast your eyes on The Art of Campari exhibition, coming to North London’s Estorick Collection next month. Not in the capital? No worries! Enjoy a sneak peek right here…
This summer art meets alcohol at the Estorick Collection in London. From 4 July to 16 September the Italian art-focused haunt will be showing a selection of classic Campari posters from 1901 up until the 1960s in its The Art of Campari exhibition.
This was a golden age for Italian commercial art. Davide Campari, the son of the company’s founder, commissioned a series of cutting-edge artists to help sell the Milanese company’s products. At the exhibition we can see how the posters progressed from Art Nouveau before World War I, to Futurism, Surrealism, Cubism and, after World War II, Pop Art.
Looking at these beautiful pictures, it’s hard to disagree with one of the artists, Fortunato Depero, that “the art of the future will largely be advertising”. And they look even better with a Negroni in your hand.
Two dapper gents enjoying a Campari and soda. Art nouveau poster for Bitter Campari by Adolf Hohenstein, 1901.
Don’t be afraid of the clown, he’s just suggesting you drink your Campari with a piece of orange. Poster by Leonetto Cappiello, 1921. 
Another serving suggestion: Cubist poster featuring Campari and a soda syphon by Marcello Nizzoli,1925.
Cubist poster for Campari Cordial, a raspberry liqueur that was discontinued in the 1980s, by Marcello Nizzoli, 1926.
The poster reads: Con un occhio vidi un Cordial con l’altro un Bitter (with one eye I saw a Cordial, with the other a Bitter). Futurist poster by Fortunato Depero, 1928.
It says: Distrattamente mise i Bitter Campari in testa (he distractedly put the Campari Bitter on his head). We’ve all done that. Artist Fortunato Depero, 1928.
Corre col Tempo! (it runs over time). The iconic pre-mixed Campari and Soda bottle was designed by Fortunato Depero. Here it is in a 1960s advert by Franz Marangolo
Another 60s Pop Art poster by Franz Marangolo. The lady looks to me like a cross between Audrey Hepburn and Sophia Loren.