POSTERS AS ART

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22464, 27 July 1938, Page 4

POSTERS AS ART

WORK OF BRITISH PRINTERS AN UNUSUAL EXHIBITION In Great Britain the poster hoardings have become a kind of people’s art gallery, especially since a number of leading advertisers, notably the railways, the London Underground, and one outstanding petrol company adopted the forward policy of using posters designed by eminent artists. That a poster can be interesting as art as well as good advertising is amply demonstrated by the splendid work shown in the exhibition of modern fine British printing now on display at the Durham Street Art Gallery. The title of the exhibition may mislead people into the belief that it is of interest only to printers. Actually it is far more an exhibition of pictures than of typography, although all the pictures are printed. Colour printing has so advanced and poster design has reached such a high standard overseas that it would be possible to regard the display solely as an art exhibition of an unusual and arresting quality. The exhibition comprises 650 pieces of modern and attractive British printing specially collected for the graphic section of the National Art Gallery, Wellington. Its display in Christchurch has been arranged by the Canterbury Society of Arts, the Christchurch Master Printers’ Association, the Canterbury Printing and Related Trades Union, and the Christchurch Advertising Club. Craftsmanship and Art “It is appropriate that this exhibition should be held in this old Art Gallery,” said Mr W. A. Bascand, president of the Christchurch Master Printers’ Association, in opening the exhibition last evening. “This building has long been the showroom of the cultural things that come to this city for exhibition. The display that now brightens these walls, so attractive to the eye and satisfying to the taste, is no less cultural and representative of art. It represents craftmanship’s finest striving to bring to the multitude the art that was once the possession of the privileged few. The contribution of the printer’s art and craft to beautifying the commonplace is of no mean importance. “This exhibition affords a wonderful opportunity of seeing the possibility of print. Its power in the community has not diminished, though rivals may claim to take its place in some spheres.. The eye is the quickest avenue to the mind. Allied with this is the permanence of the record which print affords, and the repetitive value of its constant visualising. “Typographic printing as a craft had been fortunate that it began in 1445 in an age when the engraving of steel for armorial purposes was at its height, so that the cutting of letters in perfection of design was natural to the craftsmen of the day,” said Mr Bascand. “Modern types might be less flamboyant in style than the earliest castings, yet they in no way exceeded them in beauty of form. Cloistered monks with their manuscripts knew as much of the value of margins and white space as printers knew to-day. Actually much printing to-day would be the better for the more liberal use of white space. “Pictorial reproduction, climbing from the woodcut of the early Chinese printers to the many coloured process, lithographic and gravure reproductions

in colour to-day, had attained its excellence through enthusiastic research and experiment,” added Mr Bascand. The Work on View Among the multitude of colourful posters displayed, the directness of appeal, and the clear and simple statement of a single idea in those put out by the London Underground is outstanding. They are object-lessons in the art of advertising, as well as in artistic design and skilful printing. The use of the work of such artists as McKnight Kauffer shows that the company is not afraid of advanced ideas in art. Because of this boldness, it is rewarded with the most effective poster work now being done in England, as shown by John Banting’s tropical fish for its museum poster, its “Underground Weather,” its “Opening of Parliament.” with prancing horses of guardsmen, and its “England-All India” cricket match, with cricketers’ padded legs and bats. The posters that look most like orthodox paintings are the well-known series issued by the various railway companies. They show pleasant landscapes, cathedrals, and seaside resorts, but their appeal as advertising—the primary purpose of posters—is less effective than it could be by other means. Outstanding here is the sparkling colour of Ronald Lampitt’s “Cornwall” and “Devon” for G.W.R., and the freshness of Southern Electric’s “Springtime comes First in the South." How to use a pictorial map for a poster is well illustrated by the L.M.S. “Lake District,” and how not to do it by G.W.R.’s “Somerset.” Even the British Post Office is enterprising, with the brilliant “Come on

the Telephone” of Austin Cooper, and another by McKnight Kauffer imperial Airways catches attention 0,1 bold design of the tail of boat, and its cherubic waiter across the sky. The wcil-kno\\nY Can be Sure of Shell’ senes employ able artists, as shown by John Arm strong’s trees in “Newlands Corner. Besides the posters, there sue dis plays of all kinds of printing colour, illustrating various processes. There are examples of a wide variety of modern types, as well as of their use in booklets and foldeis for most effective display. . - „ The exhibition will oe open nw every day and evening until Augu« 5, and on Sunday from 2 p.m » p.m.