International Poster Gallery Presents: International Poster Gallery announces "Objects of Desire: Product Poster Masterpieces", an exhibition tracing the ways poster artists have made products and brands irresistible. April 1-May 28, 2007.
News-Antique.com - Nov 30,-0001 - "Objects of Desire: Product Poster Masterpieces"
at International Poster Gallery
April 1, 2007 - May 28, 2007
BOSTON – International Poster Gallery announces "Objects of Desire: Product Poster Masterpieces", an exhibition that traces the numerous ways in which poster artists have made products and brands irresistible to the public since the 1890s. The show, which is free and open to the public, opens Sunday, April 1 and runs through Memorial Day, May 28, 2007. Gallery hours are Monday through Saturday 10 am to 6 pm and Sunday noon to 6 pm. International Poster Gallery is located at 205 Newbury Street in Boston. Call (617) 375-0076 or visit www.internationalposter.com for information.
Ever since posters first blossomed as an advertising medium in the late 19th century, they have been created for the seemingly simple task of selling products. Yet, from the mundane and prosaic like toothpaste and mineral water, to the luxurious and exotic like absinthe and high heels, to the complex and technical like the bicycle and the iPod, no task is actually more challenging, more open to different approaches, or more difficult to repeat successfully. The show focuses on how the product poster developed over the decades, illuminating various styles, major artists, and the masterpieces of the genre.
One of the highlights of the show is Cognac Monnet, 1927, by Leonetto Cappiello. With its subtitle, "sunshine in a glass", it is a wonderful example of product positioning. Set on a deep black background, this poster for cognac radiates warmth from the sun-kissed glass outward. Cappiello is known as the father of modern advertising for his captivating images that could be understood in a second, and remembered for a lifetime. The key to his work was creating a metaphor for a product that was so memorable that it could be absorbed instantly on a busy boulevard. Cappiello wrote: "Surprise is the foundation of advertising: it is its necessary condition." As a product poster artist he has never been surpassed.
Another stunning poster in the show is PKZ, 1923, by Otto Baumberger, which is a close-up of a coat with no other text than the PKZ label inside the collar. For over 80 years, the Zurich men’s clothing store, PKZ, commissioned the best Swiss and German artists to design their advertisements. In the early years PKZ turned to sophisticated German artists such as Munich’s Ludwig Hohlwein, or young Swiss artists who had studied the new art of poster-making in Germany. One of these young Swiss pioneers was Otto Baumberger, who studied in Munich before WWI and created five masterpieces for PKZ. This poster by Baumberger is one of the most famous posters of all time, as well as the most famous Swiss Object Poster. It is such a finely drawn and printed lithograph with incredible detail that at first glance many think it is a photograph.
"’Objects of Desire’ is one of the most fun shows we've ever presented, but also one of the most thought provoking," comments gallery president Jim Lapides.
