PRINTER'S ART

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22943, 22 January 1938, Page 19

PRINTER'S ART

BRITISH EXHIBITION FINE POSTERS SHOWN DISPLAY IN AUCKLAND Many phases of the printer's art as practised in Britain are'illustrated in a Comprehensive exhibition which will be on view in the Art; Gallery from this morning. The was presented to the New Zealand Government last year by the British Federation of Master Printers, and has already been 6hown at Wellington arid Wanganui. It will remain three weeks in Auckland, and then will bo sent to Napier.

Tho largest and most interesting section of the exhibition is that devoted to posters. Although not comparable with tho immense display mado in the Tdwn Hall somo years ago under the auspices of tho-late Empire Marketing Board, the collection gives a very good idea of the excellent- 1 and varied work done by British artists 1 in designing small posters for railway and steamship companies, air lines and tourist resorts. - Well-known Artists In stylo these range from landscapes in tho Victorian manner to humorous conceptions borrowing the mannerisms of nenrlv every modernist school. One design depicting a seaside resort even imitates surrealism, but with tho difference that the result is entirely rational and understandable. All the best work is remarkable for bold design and the effective use of subduod as well as bright colour, and tho lithographic craftsmanship is of the finest. Among the artists, Norman Wilkinson and Frank H. Mason have tho widest representation. Some beautiful posters of docks and shipping were not only designed, but also drawn' on tho < stone by the well-known marine Jiainter, Charles Pears. Work by W. ice Hank<s', Leonard Richmond, Fred Taylor, Anna Zinkeisen, Konald Lampitt and "Fougasso" is aIBO shown. A comic map of the Lake District bv the late Arthur Watts, of Punch, well rewards close examination. For consistent originality the posters of the London Underground and the Shell Company are almost unique, and the British Post Office shows an unconventionally, remarkable in a State organisation'.

Type-face Design There is a wide range bf catalogue and showcard work in colour, and of reproductions of paintings for use in schools. This, however, is rather lacking in interest and much of it scarcely does justice to British art or to the printing industry. A small but most instructive section is devoted to typography, and includes specimens of many of the finest modern British type faces. The display demonstrates wnat students of the subject have long known, that in the designing of ( beautiful types Britain is second to no country in tho world, and does not viekl the paW to her only rival, the "United States. .