SPEAKING OF PICTURES: A VINTAGE GRAPHICS BLOG

VINTAGE POSTERS PERTAINING TO THE MATERIALS OF WAR

Posted on September 13, 2019 by Jim Clark

http://www.idesirevintageposters.com/canadian-collection-the-empires-strength-c.1940-canada.html

When war becomes a subject, we tend to concentrate upon horrific violence, astounding machinery, political gamesmanship and lands left in ruin. The world of vintage war posters tends to celebrate a combatant’s power and virtue in the course of validating the heavy costs.

Those well-known phenomena are not, actually, on the table today. There is a civilian component of war which brings to us a remarkable wealth of endeavor very often ignored—but not, fortunately, ignored by vintage graphic artists, in expanding and deepening the war effort, not a source of cash flow.  Continue reading →

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ANATOMY 0F A LOVE AFFAIR WITH VINTAGE POSTERS

Posted on August 21, 2019 by Jim Clark

Here’s how the vintage poster love affair began–an email arrived in our mailbox June 10,  2019 from a first time visitor:

“I’m intrigued by this Massey Ferguson poster that you have.  I have not really been able to find much information on the artist, J.C. Rousseau other than it looks like he may have designed some cigarette ads in the 60s and 70s as well.  Can you tell me anything more about him?”  Continue reading →

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OVERLOOKED VINTAGE POSTER  GEMS IN OUR INVENTORY PART THREE 

Posted on May 7, 2019 by Jim Clark

http://www.idesirevintageposters.com/transportation-far-east-sas-cranes-1959.html

 

With this shout-out about vintage posters that seem to be missing in action, we hearken to  the signs of the time, inasmuch as travel has never been such a magnet as it is now. The styles of such events comprise a stunning range–from airbnb couch surfing to grand cruises and palatial hotels. Moreover, prodigious distances covered by extreme youth and extreme age have become commonplace. No time nor money to “waste” on old lithos? Let’s see.

With those unprecedented numbers of travellers, we wonder how the travel and transportation art of the past, in our inventory, might add depths for wayfarers and jet-setters alike.

For instance, our first gem has much to offer in its sensuousness and coloration, only coming to special elegance and fascination by the powers of lithography, multiplying the tonality of a view. The tiny stature of the plane accentuates the royalty of the cranes, and yet leaves an aura you might never appreciate otherwise. The foliage and the misty lake bring to bear real mystery, seldom if ever, coming through a phone or any camera.

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OVERLOOKED VINTAGE GRAPHIC GEMS IN OUR INVENTORY  PART TWO

Posted on April 5, 2019 by Jim Clark

http://www.idesirevintageposters.com/artistic-magazines-fortune-march-1937.html

Our business could well be described as providing wall decor. The virtues of vintage poster design tended to strut-their-stuff on large surfaces, to be glued to outdoor walls. These productions were not to be sneezed at, inasmuch as the talent pool, first seen in Paris, was very accomplished. It is this uprising which seduced urban decorators to turn to lithographic resources as distinct from paintings.

All well and  good, of course. But the same folks who dazzled the populous by way of first-rate posters, were also very active in producing smaller-scale lithographic promotions–in theatre programs, magazine covers and illustrations, wine catalogues, pochoirs, menus, etc. Although the quality of these items was generally as sharp as the very best posters, the aesthetes of the time (and right up to our own time) could, for the most part, not bring themselves to find serious interest in small illumination.

Therefore, today we’d like to introduce our enthusiasm for this work. Our first gem, by posterist-giant, A. M. Cassandre, finds him in a Surrealist mood, having left France for work in New York, as the guns of war were imminent in Europe.

Please visit added Fortune illus. by Cassandre:  Surrealist Graphic Design Gallery

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OVERLOOKED VINTAGE POSTER  GEMS IN OUR INVENTORY  PART ONE

Posted on March 27, 2019 by Jim Clark

http://www.idesirevintageposters.com/entertainment-new-york-worlds-fair-1939.html

Here at I Desire Vintage Posters, we have always carefully chosen, for our site, imagery that excites us and would seem to be attractive to many others. But, sometimes, we will have on hand fine vintage posters which the world seems  to be able to ignore. Today’s vintage graphic art blog takes a close look at these items we are delighted to be able to closely touch base with; but, still having a concern that they didn’t click after several years.

Our first gem, displaying such a warm welcome and expert composition, pertains to the iconic World’s Fair, in New York, in the dramatic year of 1939. The theme was “The World of Tomorrow,” as especially spotlighted by the edifices of the Trylon and the Perisphere, housing  dioramas, called, “Democracy,” and, “Utopian City of the Future.”     Continue reading →

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THEATRE IN VINTAGE POSTER ART

Posted on March 15, 2019 by Jim Clark

http://www.idesirevintageposters.com/travel-londons-offer-1938.html

There is a glut of movie posters, although you can’t have too many vintage movie posters as created by the astonishing Stenberg brothers, who rocked in the early years of Soviet Russia. (And, of course, there is a pantheon of great vintage lithographic movie posters from all over the world.)

Although we have never paid much attention to acquiring vintage movie posters (the Stenberg’s being prohibitively expensive), we have had, from our early days, a strong commitment to live theatre promotions. A large percentage of vintage general-trade-enticement has deployed theatrical motifs to create a buzz for the product or service. But here we want to discover if the moments in face of the footlights provide a unique intensity and elegance.

Our first example, “That’s the Ticket,” provides a vivacious array of props, by means of which to preview the range of drama being lavished upon us by the company. In providing clues to the night on the town, the wit and mystery, to be offered, somehow goes beyond what a single image can do.    Continue reading →

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Posted in Art Nouveau/Belle Époque Posters&Graphics, Avant-Garde Posters&Graphics, Modernist Posters&Graphics, Performance Art, Poster&Graphic Art, Poster&Graphic Artists, Surrealist Posters&Graphics | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

THE INNOVATIVE TONE OF VINTAGE GRAPHIC AND POSTER ART

Posted on February 16, 2019 by Jim Clark

http://www.idesirevintageposters.com/art-deco-rarities-deco-sleigh-c.1920.html

In addition to the seduction of its forces on behalf of selling a product or service, vintage graphic art frequently shines a light on the future. How so? The optical resources of excitement in first-rate promotional work, in fact, move beyond easy, explicable pleasure, in order to induce an aura of mystery giving us pause. We may not explicitly recognize that addition, but it does allow of comprehension.

For instance, that little (you might say inconsequential) pochoir Christmas card, being our first instance, slightly distorts the figures, in order to facilitate recognition of a dynamic transcending, satisfactorily pleasurable. The tree-branch legs of the trio of sleigh-steeds become family to those birch tree branches. That the passengers chord with the aforementioned sticks develops a harmony while snowbound. The red sleigh, therefore, becomes an agency compelled to going for broke.

Such a delivery  has been famously described as “art deco.” But long before the term took hold, the phenomenon had been an enticing feature.

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 THE ALLURE OF SPEED, AS CAPTURED BY VINTAGE GRAPHIC ART AND POSTERS 

Posted on January 27, 2019 by Jim Clark

http://www.idesirevintageposters.com/circus-african-riders.html

We’re bombarded by the exigency to move vigorously. Shine in motion, or stay in your room. The fascination of sports largely calls upon feats of sizzling motion. Look closely of a big city’s denizens coming to or going from work, and you will be treated to a cat walk of the powerfully coordinated, including wielding their phones. Why does this speak to us? Let’s let the vintage graphics in our collection cast some light on the subject.

If you’ve been keeping track of where theatre is going in the 21st century, you’ll have noticed that much of the excitement pertains more to circus and dance than dialogue and literature. Our first plate indicates that, in the 1930’s, dynamic spectacle was already the rage—a means of defining vintage poster art as a sign of a change from the previous centuries’ demand for rational pinpointing.

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CHRISTMAS ANTHOLOGY OF CANADIAN STORIES (1965)–ILLUSTRATED  CHILDREN’S BOOK

Posted on December 17, 2018 by Jim Clark

Cover;12″ x 8 3/4″; 15pp. Original Printer’s Copy

Far from good (and too dull to be naughty), our Christmas vintage graphic design blog is not without collateral interest. The writer, John F. Hayes, claims to be putting into print what began as his original improv bedtime stories for his children. But he has obviously rejigged the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer material (without attribution, as if Gene Autry stole his genius), with catastrophic results. The author shows a misfit effecting the supposed urgency to cover the globe with pretty snow for a supposed world-wide keening about freezing, and from this non-starter he disappears, as if caught up in a tar-baby, babbling with verbose and dry lostness. (“A few minutes later, Jumpet was brought from his room. Snowscatter reached out and patted his little head. ‘You are not here to be scolded again, Jumpet. But you are the only elf who can [joy-] ride a reindeer, and we want you to lead the Snowmakers tonight!’ “)

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LITERATURE AFLOAT BY VINTAGE GRAPHIC ART & POSTERS  (PART TWO)

Posted on December 11, 2018 by Jim Clark

http://www.idesirevintageposters.com/publishing-ladies-home-journal-dec-1941.html

Proceeding with the link of graphic art and literature, after the disappearance of the Belle Epoque and its internationally galvanized Romanticism, we find an intriguing change on the move. Gone are the rather precious, elaborate garments and the sense of revolutionary insurrection; in its place are more circumspect, easy-going dispositions negotiating a diversity of enthusiasms.

Our first vintage poster enticing the purchase of a publication (namely, “The Ladies Home Journal,”) pertains to the secular goods displayed in the Christmas number, and the smartest ways to celebrate. Right at the moment when America was about to enter World War II, the priority of creature comforts still loomed large. Especially with this design, we can discern the embrace of movies, perhaps Disney productions.

Continue reading →

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