Poster, Tension

This is a Poster. It was made for (as the client) Herman Miller Furniture Company. It is dated ca. 1964–80 and we acquired it in 1981. Its medium is lithograph on paper. It is a part of the Drawings, Prints, and Graphic Design department.

Its dimensions are

89 × 58.5 cm (35 1/16 × 23 1/16 in.)

It is signed

Signed in graphite, lower right: 59/100 John Massey

It is inscribed

Printed in black, vertically, upper left: as if it were necessarily undesirable, / when the truth is that we couldn’t live / without it. Without tension there could / be no balance either in nature or in / mechanical design. / A tension headache is a symptom, / but of what? Probably of tension in- / appropriately applied. But tension / itself is one of the essentials of / life. When Charles Atlas first addressed / masculine fantasies with the terrifying; in white, vertically, within black square at center left: from / Notes on Tension / by Ralph Caplan. / Herman Miller / Zeeland, Michigan; in black, horizontally, center left: Herman Miller has a healthy respect for tension; in black, lower left: herman miller produces office / and health care systems, furniture, / service and information

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