ATLANTA, GEORGIA.- The Coca-Cola Company and the High Museum of Art are presenting a pictorial history of the modern Santa Claus in a new holiday exhibit, Inventing Santa: Art and Advertising, running through January 5, 2003 at the High Museum of Art.
The exhibition will consist of a selection of 18 paintings by Haddon Sundblom, an illustrator commissioned by The Coca-Cola Company in 1931 to develop an advertising image for the holidays. Inspired by Clement Clark Moore’s 1822 poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas," which described the toy maker as "chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf," Sundblom created the modern day image of Santa Claus. Through this image and the power of the mass media, nearly every household in America became familiar with Sundblom’s Santa.
"The value of Haddon Sundblom’s Santa goes beyond the worth of the paintings themselves," stated Philip F. Mooney, manager, Archives Department of The Coca-Cola Company. "He represents everything we cherish about the holidays: family, enjoyment and tradition. The Sundblom Santa is an enduring symbol of the spirit of the holidays and we are proud to ignite this season with an artistic trip down memory lane."
The Santa Claus that is an established part of the holiday tradition was an invention of Victorian America. The 19th century mass media gave this Santa credibility by fashioning him as a part of an ancient folk tradition - a mythical hero unchanged by consumer culture. Anne Knutson, guest curator for this exhibit, and also curator for the High Museum of Art’s exhibition "Normal Rockwell: Pictures for the American People," states: "The dichotomy we hope to explore is the balance between commercial interests and time honored traditions seen in Sundblom’s Santa."
Yet Santa has always been commercial. Santa’s earliest likenesses were fashioned by mass media artists. Initially, these artists created many different "Santas," ranging from an authoritarian figure to the kind and benevolent one known today. Famous illustrators including Thomas Nast, J. C. Leyendecker, and Norman Rockwell standardized a more consistent image of Santa in the popular press.
These precedents influenced the Santa that Haddon Sundblom created for Coca-Cola in 1931. Coca-Cola hired Sundblom to paint a figure that would encourage Americans to drink Coke in the winter months. (Until 1931, Coke was considered a summer beverage.) Sundblom created at least one Santa annually for Coca-Cola through 1964.
Conceived during the Great Depression, Sundblom’s merry, portly Santa changed very little over the years. Reproduced by the millions, Sundblom’s Santa boosted winter sales and became a holiday archetype that endures in television, films, and department stores today.
The exhibition will feature a visual timeline of mass-produced images of Santa showcasing the central role of mass magazines, such as Harper’s Weekly and the Saturday Evening Post in creating and shaping the image of Santa Claus over the past 200 years.
Finally, the exhibition will focus on Sundblom’s life as an illustrator and creator of historic advertising images. In addition to Santa, Sundblom visually "coined" other well-known figures in the history of advertising for accounts such as Cream of Wheat and the U.S. Marine Corps.
