In 1908 the London Underground (officially the Underground Electric Railways Company of London, later the London Passenger Transport Board, or LPTB), under the leadership of Frank Pick, began an aggressive promotional campaign that became one of the most successful, adventurous, and best sustained branding operations ever attempted. This poster campaign not only encouraged ridership on the public transport system, but also helped to foster a civic identity for the city of London, and the more than five thousand images produced include some of the greatest achievements of poster art. According to the art historian Nikolas Pevsner, writing in 1942, “No exhibition of modern painting, no lecturing, no school of teaching can have had anything like so wide an effect on the educationable masses as the unceasing production and display of LPTB posters over the years 1930 to 1940.” Open 27 MAY — 15 AUGUST, 2010.
The gift to the Center by Henry S. Hacker (Yale College, Class of 1965) of his major collection of transport posters provides the occasion for an examination of these extraordinary works. Art for All features more than one hundred outstanding posters executed for both the Underground, by designers such as Edward McKnight Kauffer, Frederick Herrick, and Hans Schleger, and for the British railways by designers such as Tom Purvis and Frank Newbould. The exhibition will explore the evolution of transport posters in twentieth century Britain, highlighting specific features such as the career of Kauffer, the work of women artists, how the posters were initially displayed, and the larger implications of these advertising campaigns.
Art for All has been organized by the Yale Center for British Art and curated by Teri J. Edelstein, principal, Teri J. Edelstein Associates Museum Strategies. The organizing curator at the Center is Scott Wilcox, Chief Curator of Art Collections and Senior Curator of Prints and Drawings. The exhibition will be accompanied by a fully illustrated publication, edited by Teri J. Edelstein with contributions by leading scholars, and published by the Yale Center for British Art in association with Yale University Press. Art for All will travel to the Musée de l’Imprimerie in Lyon, France, in fall 2010 and to The Wolfsonian-Florida International University in spring 2011.
Yale Center for British Art
1080 Chapel Street‚ PO Box 208280
New Haven‚ Connecticut 06520-8280
http://ycba.yale.edu
