Synopsis
A collection of American poster art that the author says "explore[s] the strategies of commerce, propaganda, and patriotism."
| Details | | Publication Date: | 1998-03-01 | | Edition Description: | Illustrated |
| Size | | Length: | 191 pages | | Height: | 12.0 in | | Width: | 9.0 in | | Thickness: | 1.0 in | | Weight: | 43.2 oz |
Publisher's Note
Although the last twenty years have brought increased awareness of the force and significance of posters, this book is the first to focus exclusively on those created in the United States. Featured here are 120 enticing posters created by some of the most popular American artists and graphic designers of the last hundred years - including Will Bradley, Ben Shahn, Robert Rauschenberg, Rupert Garcia, Georgia O'Keeffe, Wes Wilson, Norman Rockwell, Victor Moscoso, and the Guerrilla Girls - as well as splendid works by less familiar artists. The plate section is divided into five categories that address the social, commercial, political, and cultural roles of posters: American Events, Designed to Sell, Patriots and Protestors, Advice for Americans, and Sports. Persuasive images such as these continue to play an integral part in almost every aspect of American life. Biographical entries on the artists, a concise guide to postermaking terms, a bibliography, and both subject and chronological indexes serve to make this volume an invaluable reference tool.
Industry Reviews
As Elizabeth Broun, director of the National Museum of American Art (NMAA), states in the foreword, the power of posters is that "Image and text are distilled to their essence, readable at a glance and assimilable on the deepest levels." Visiting curator Heyman has pulled 121 of these from the NMAA's collections for an exhibit that will travel from Washington, DC, to West Palm Beach, Santa Barbara, and Oakland. To highlight the distinctive "American" flavor in these posters of the past century, Heyman has organized them together by category, such as "Patriots and Protesters" or "Sports." There is James Montgomery Flagg's famous image of Uncle Sam ("I want you for the U.S. Army") as well as an unknown artist's draft-resistance poster of Joan Baez and her two sisters ("Girls say yes to boys who say No"). There are examples of the very simple posters for Harper's Weekly, famous movie posters, psychedelic concert posters from the Sixties, and more recent environmental and AIDS posters. Aside from the lavish reproductions, there is a glossary, brief biographies of the makers, an extensive bibliography, and a chronological index. Highly recommended for all collections. Joseph C. Hewgley, Nashville P.L., TN
Mayer
Visiting curator Heyman has pulled 121 . . . [posters] from the NMAA's collections. . . . To highlight the distinctive 'American' flavor in these posters of the past century, Heyman has organized them together by category, such as 'Patriots and Protesters' or 'Sports.' There is James Montgomery Flagg's famous image of Uncle Sam ('I want you for the U.S. Army') as well as an unknown artist's draft-resistance poster of Joan Baez and her two sisters ('Girls say yes to boys who say No'). There are examples of the very simple posters for Harper's Weekly, famous movie posters, psychedelic concert posters from the Sixties, and more recent environmental and AIDs posters. Aside from the lavish reproductions there is a glossary, . . . an extensive bibliography, and a chronological index. Highly recommended for all collections.
Annotation copyright H.W. Wilson Company.
Mendenhall
[This volume] shows a 'fledgling collection' that should soon be a superb one. The book itself, with exemplary biographies, chronology and booklist, is extremely well produced. Is there something essentially American in the art of poster-making? The introduction blusters about posters expressing 'an exuberant, persuasive, even argumentative side of American culture. . . . Posters don't hold back.' I am far from convinced by Therese Thau Hayman's claims for the all-American-ness of such fin-de-si?ecle poster artists as Will Bradley, whose debts to Burne-Jones and Beardsley are obvious. . . . It was only in the post-war years, as photographic techniques supplanted the old European autographic artwork that the American poster style came into its own.
Annotation copyright H.W. Wilson Company.
MacCarthy
| See an error? Submit a change request |
All rights reserved.
