A Golden Age of Poster Design: Magazine Posters from the 1890s
The Century, Edward Potthast, 1896,
Lithograph.
Yesterday I visited an exhibit at Portland’s Pittlock Mansion, A Golden Age of Poster Design: Magazine Posters from the 1890s. This locally owned collection features lithographic posters created to promote magazines like Harper’s Monthly, The Century and Lippencotts.
Before the 1890’s posters were expensive to produce. But new lithographic printing methods made color printing affordable for magazine publishers.
These posters were placed in bookseller’s windows to promote magazine sales. Publishers soon discovered that people were interested in the posters for their artistic appeal. Thus a poster collecting fad began.
This exhibit features posters created by Maxfield Parrish, Edward Potthast, J.J. Gould Jr. and others. Some of these illustrators were employed by the publishers and others were “winners” of poster competitions.
Harper’s August, Tom Sawyer Detective,
1896, Lithograph.
Artists were influenced by Art Nouveau, Japanese prints, Arts and Crafts movement. The design of the posters usually used fluid lines, flat colors areas and simple typography — usually only the magazine title and issue were shown.
I remember studying and loving these artists’ works while taking Art History classes in college. I know they’ve influenced my illustration style on some of the projects I’ve worked on.
Visit this poster exhibit at the Pittlock Mansion
3229 NW Pittock Dr
Portland, Oregon 97210
A design that needs study is not a poster no matter how well it is executed.”
— Edward Penfield
Just One Look Artists’ Books Exhibit
Cupid and Psyche by Mari Eckstein Gower of Redmond, Washington. Inspired by a work of the same name by Apulieus and suggested by Ashli Baker of Bucknell University.
Just One Look: an exhibition of contemporary book arts exploring the theme of Women and Vision
University of Washington is currently showing an exhibition of 32 new art books. Created by local and national artists, this exhibition was part of “Visions: Feminism and Classics VII,” a conference sponsored by the Women’s Classical Caucus, a part of the Society for Classical Studies.
A wide range of mediums were used to create these gorgeous books — including illustration, photography, paper and fiber artwork. In most cases, the artists used text that was suggested by UW faculty from UW Humanities areas.
This exhibition is beautiful and inspiring on many levels — artistically and socially. If you aspire to create books or love seeing beautiful work, visit this exhibition soon before it closes on July 29th.
The exhibit was co-curated by UW alumna Lauren Dudley with Sandra Kroupa, UW Libraries’ well-known book arts and rare book curator.
Just One Look
Now through July 29, 2016
University of Washington Libraries’ Special Collections department, in Allen Library
Learn more about Just One Look.
The Spanish Art Tour
My husband and I recently experienced an amazing sixteen day trip through Spain, with stops in Barcelona, Madrid, Sevilla and Granada. While we did not intend to have art become the focus of our trip, it was unavoidable. Everywhere we looked, we found art — on the tiled walls, on the floors and ceilings, and throughout the plazas.
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