poster

A poster asking for support for the Hitler-Mussolini Pact of May 1938. The swastika announces year 16 of fascism and suggests a peaceful outcome.

A propaganda poster suggesting that it was time for another group of men to take up arms, this time the 18-19-year-olds. Home Defence was not merely a ‘Dad's Army’.

A light-hearted picture of the capture of one of the enemy. The instructions are to empty his pockets, but to keep no souvenirs.

A famous poster by propagandist artist Fougasse (Kenneth Bird). Its message became a byword in a country always on the lookout for spies and ‘Fifth Columnists’ (subversive groups).

A poster for Republican Dwight D Eisenhower's US presidential campaign in 1952, with Richard Nixon as his running mate.

An announcement of a ‘Women's Land Army Great Recruiting Rally’, to be held in Woolwich, London, England, during World War I.

Public notice used for advertising or propaganda, often illustrated. Ancestors of the modern poster were handbills with woodcut illustrations, which were posted up in public places. The French artist Jules Chéret pioneered the medium of colour lithography in his posters of the early 1860s, but the 1890s were the classic age of the poster, notable producers being Toulouse-Lautrec, Aubrey Beardsley, and the ‘Beggarstaff Brothers’ (William Nicholson and James Pryde). Poster design flourished again in the 1960s with the arrival of psychedelic art, and artists such as Rick Griffin (1944-1991) and Stanley Mouse (1921- ) in the USA, and Michael English (1942- ) in the UK.

The outstanding lithographs of Toulouse-Lautrec, designed for various Parisian resorts, were influenced by the work of Chéret and the simplified designs of Japanese prints. Inspired by Toulouse-Lautrec the ‘Beggarstaff Brothers’ created designs noted for their striking simplicity using cut-paper shapes. In the early 20th century Frank Brangwyn, Duncan Grant, Graham Sutherland, and Paul Nash, and patrons such as London Transport and Shell-Mex, were notable contributors to the development of poster design in Britain.