Mackintosh to Lichtenstein: Design Landmarks in the History of the Poster

From January 31 to March 16, 2012, the Reinhold-Brown Gallery will exhibit rare masterworks in the history of poster design that present a concise but revealing overview of the evolution and major manifestations in the history of the poster medium. Nearly all the works on display are either unique in the world or of extreme rarity. In every instance each represents the pinnacle of achievement in its genre, be it Art Nouveau, Vienna Secession, Art Deco, Russian Constructivism, avant-garde typography and photomontage, or Pop Art.
 
Among the works on view are one of the earliest and most influential examples of modern design, Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s poster for “The Scottish Musical Review” (1896); two original, unpublished designs for posters by Josef Hoffmann and Koloman Moser for the opening of the first Wiener Werkstätte showroom in 1905; the quintessential Russian Constructivist photomontage poster by Nikolas Prusakov for the film “Khaz Push”; an innovative typographic poster from 1928 by the Bauhaus-trained graphic designer Theo Ballmer; masterpieces by the three greatest Art Deco poster designers A.M. Cassandre, Charles Loupot and Jean Carlu; two Swiss typographic-Neo-Constructivist posters by the Brazilian-born painter Mary Viera and the great Swiss graphic designer Joseph Mueller-Brockmann; the rare, signed letterpress poster that Claes Oldenburg designed to advertise his legendary 1961 shop and installation called “The Store”; and a signed, limited-edition poster printed on foil by Roy Lichtenstein for the 1966 New York Film Festival.