Poster, 25th Anniversary of New York City Center, New York, NY, from Seven Serigraphs by Seven Artists

This is a Poster. It is dated 1968 and we acquired it in 1995. Its medium is lithograph on paper. It is a part of the Drawings, Prints, and Graphic Design department.

It is credited Gift of Joshua Mack.

Its dimensions are

H x W: 88.7 × 63.7 cm (34 15/16 × 25 1/16 in.)

It is inscribed

Printed in pink, aligned left: Posters of consistently high quality by noted contemporary artists are a fairly / recent development in the United States, dating from the mid-sixties. / American sophistication in the visual arts has increased tremendously in the / past two decades. Our art has become sure of itself (some might say cocky) / for the first time in this century with the consequent attributes of clarity, / powerful design, and the immediate recognizability of a multitude of personal / styles. This has been particularly true since 1960 when the second wave of / post-war American artists invented Pop Art and the New Abstraction. Abstract / Expressionism, with its greater complexity of notation and gesture, was less / serviceable for posters whose purpose it is to convey instant information. / The List Poster Program has been the best organized and most successful / sponsor of the fine arts poster. Stunning and memorable work by Roy Lichten- / stein and Frank Stella come to mind as highlights of the past few years, original works / by major artists made available in faithful and authorized reproductions / to a wider public than had heretofore been reached. These posters always / celebrate specific events or honor institutions and festivals. Toulouse-Lautrec / did much of his best work in celebration of the music halls of his day; today / film festivals and concert series are the more respectable subjects to be / advertised and commemorated in posters. / This year, City Center is celebrating its twenty-fifth year and to commemorate / the occasion, has had the List Art Poster Program commission posters by / seven well-known artists, one for each of the six member companies and the / seventh for the twenty-fifth anniversary itself. City Center has truly been the / people’s theater, opera, ballet, and concert hall in New York, never forgetting its / responsibilities to make great entertainment available at uninflated prices, an / achievement that richly deserves celebration! / Richard Anuskiewicz [sic] celebrates the New York City Opera with a cearly conceived / and executed optical exercise, eleven two-dimensional box sides which read / simply yet ambiguously enough to fix and hold the attention. / Lowell Nesbitt’s poster for the New York City Center Drama Company is an / aspiring curving staircase, or conversely it is a stairway broadening as it / approaches the seated public (a stage situation is implied). / George Segal evokes the New York City Ballet with his expressionist Don Quixote / in full armor. The black and white drawing, relieved by red lettering, is produced / with energy and with concern for the human condition (what better symbol / than the idealistic bumbler, Quixote). / Jack Youngerman’s City Center Joffrey Ballet poster is as bold as a late Matisse / cut-out. The yellow forms grow organically on a blue ground from a spade-like / shape, or they sway rhythmically. The result is handsome. / Gerald Laing, an English sculptor residing in New York, has made an abstract / design for the City Center Light Opera which incorporates his highly original and / effective lettering based on a circle within a circle, in this case backed by a / yellow plane indicative of a continuing perspective behind the letters. / Jim Dine moves us simply and directly with his City Center Gilbert and Sullivan / poster. The photograph is exquisitely chosen, the metallic bar which bisects the / photograph and establishes the plane transposes the photo and draws it forward, / and finally the eccentric lettering and exaggerated rouge and lipstick convey / exactly the amusement and heartbreak of Gilbert and Sullivan at their best. / Robert Indiana’s densely colored, totally designed poster celebrates the twenty- / fifth anniversary of the City Center. It is suitable massive and rich. / The incursions of the fine arts into daily life are to be encouraged. These posters / are just that. / Henry Geldzahler / Curator of Contemporary Art / The Metropolitan Museum of Art / June 1968

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