Wednesday, February 17, 1999
Museum celebrates posters
Little-known works from 1890s deserve display
BY OWEN FINDSEN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
A century ago posters were the hottest thing going. People attended “Living Poster” shows, where actors posed as characters in advertising posters. People threw costume parties, where guests came dressed as their favorite poster figure.
America may have been behind the times in most modern art, but during the 1890s it was up to the minute — even in the lead — in the fine art of the advertising poster.
Cincinnati Art Museum's American Art Posters of the 1890s is no blockbuster exhibition. There are no timed tickets or lines. This art is little known to museum audiences, even though it's one of the shining moments in the story of American art.
There was a printing revolution in the 1890s. Color lithography was prefected, opening new vistas for artists.
Newspapers and magazines were printed in such large numbers that color lithography was far too expensive. But printing posters for magazines and newspapers was ideal.
Many publications, including Harper's, Century and Scribner's, commissioned artists to design posters for each issue. Book covers were illustrated, and manufactures of the most trendy products, such as bicycles, commissioned dramatic posters. Women's fashions were strongly influenced by the costumes on posters.
Posters were so popular they were collected as fine art.
Collectors looked for works by their favorite artists, including Will Bradley, J.C. Leyendecker and Maxfield Parrish. Many artists who would become famous, including Cincinnati's Edward Potthast and John Twachtman, designed posters. Posters were also one of the first media in which women artists (Maude Humphrey, Florence Lundborg and Blanche McManus, for example) made their mark.
Today, poster artists are virtually unknown. While a painting by van Gogh or Monet can sell for tens of millions of dollars, posters from the 1890s still sell for between $100 and $3,000 at the Jack Wood Gallery in O'Bryonville, Cincinnati's only poster gallery.
Posters in the exhibition are from Hirschl and Adler Galleries in New York and the New York Historical Society, but Cincinnati was a major printing center during the poster craze.
American Art Posters of the 1890s, Cincinnati Art Museum, through March 27. 721-5204.
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