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Rene Wanner's Poster Blog

I am leaving for the Brno Biennale 2004, ah, uh, no sorry I mean the Warsaw Biennale 2004.

The Swiss Decency Commission has rejected complaints by the feminist organisation "Terre des femmes" against posters published last year by the underware company Sloggi and ruled that these posters cannot be considered sexist, because there is a close relationship between the product (tanga strings) and the carrier of the advertising message (women's bodies). More information in "Nicht sexistisch" - Entscheide der Lauterkeitskommission ( NZZ Online, 28. 5. 2004) (in german) Seeing is believing.

Onslow's poster auction 19th & 20th Century Posters & Advertising Ephemera, Sale on Friday 18th June, 2004 (news from Dag Suul)

A call for entries for images on human rights, in particular those of prisoners of war, initiated by Ruedi Baur, Institut design2context, HGK Zuerich (CH), deadline June 15, 2004.

In every city administration there are people who do not have enough to do and then start to worry about what is good for you and what not. In Zuerich (CH), they have decided that we should not see so many small posters put up all over the city, but there should be some order, and also fees for posting. With closer police surveillance, higher fines and people who take the posters down again, they claim to have reduced the numbers of wild posters by more than 90%, see Labile Situation bei den Kleinplakaten - Arbeitslosenprogramm gegen illegale Werbung (NZZ Online, 27. 5. 2004) (in german).

Seattle WA (US) became notorious for a similar program a few years ago, but that evil poster ban fortunately came to an end two years ago.

The italian graphic designers association AIAP has probably the best web site of all comparable institutions. They have now supplemented it with a blog SocialDesignZine that emphasizes social and political graphics. The page can be viewed thematically, and I find Mostre (exhibitions), Storie di grafica (history of graphic design) and Propaganda the most interesting sections. The blog is richly illustrated and often has links to the original sites, so it is fun even if you don't understand italian. Lots of political posters too!

Andrey Logvin writes in his blog on May 19, 2004: 600 posters for 600 rubles Publishing house Contact-Kultura published an album "600 posters". The publication is extremely strange, because posters in it are assembled in subject chapters of the type "defect for the threshold!" (poster in the fight with the social evil), or "happy are borne under the Soviet star!" (motherhood and childhood in the Soviet poster). But in this case the book gives to unenlightened sufficiently wide idea about such powerful layers of culture as Russian and Soviet poster, and if you thus far did not gather the subject albums of the same publishing house - run into the book store "Moscow" and into other different "Biblioglobusy". One poster for one rup' - through several years you will recall as anecdote. (translated with Babelfish)

The deadline for the Golden Bee poster competition in Moscow has been extended to June 15 (+ one week for post mistakes).

The van Sabben Poster Auctions catalogue just arrived, for the auction on June 6, 2004 in Hoorn (NL).

Arthur Zelger, prominent austrian poster artist and designer of the "Tyrol" logo died recently in Innsbruck (AT). Read an obituary and look at one of his posters.

One of my pet projects is to walk around in a city and take pictures of real posters in the streets. To document what I saw when and where, I bought a portable GPS, one of these small devices that tell you exactly where you are by using signals from satellites. I hope one day all respectable cameras will have a GPS integrated, to help you sort out all your vacation pictures. A fallout of this project is a growing list of geographical coordinates of interesting poster places like galleries, graphic design schools, poster museums and so on, which you now find on Rene Wanner's Poster Page / GPS coordinates of interesting poster places. Maybe some years from now, you just have to ask your camera where the next poster exhibition is, and it will look it up on the Poster Page and guide you gently towards it ...

The program of the accompanying events of the 19th International Poster Biennale in Warsaw (starting on June 5, 2004) is now available as a pdf file.

The winners of the Chaumont Poster Festival are now on the Poster Page.

The Learn About Movie Posters Newsletter, May 18, 2004, is now on line. "We have two articles of particular interest to movie poster collectors. One article updates the Framing Article with a new addition for tips on large posters written by Sue Heim. The other article relates to a restoration certificate that is now available for collectors to use when restoring a poster."

Aage Sikker Hansen's Art Exhibition, 31. January to 19. September, in Odense on the island Fyn in Denmark at the Danmarks Mediemuseum. Take a look at some of his posters (news from Dag Suul)

Pawel Swiecicki, a 27 year old polish poster designer, would like to show you his portfolio.

SODA is an avant-garde swiss graphic design and art magazine published 3 times a year. Their number 21 included 8 full size posters by Marc Kappeler, Aline Ledergerber, Aude Lehmann, Flag, Sonja Feldmeier, Francoise Caraco. Their web site shows all the pages from number 22, just published.

The Hobby Portal for Movie Poster Collectors ICollectMoviePosters.com from Jon Warren, who published the well known "Movie Poster Price Guide" books.

2004 China Modern Poster Invitational Poster Show is held in Yanji City (close to the boarder of North Korea and China), starting on May 16. (news from Xiao Yong, Beijing)

(news from Xiao Yong, Beijing) Shandong Peace Poster competition held in Jinan, the capital city of Shandong province. The city is 5 million city, and Shandong province has 90 million, is well developed region in China. It lies between Beijing and Shanghai, is famous of the springs around the city. Hosted by Shandong University of Art and Design. More than 300 entries. Judged by the national leading designers and professors: Wu Yong, Xiao Yong, Wang Min, Qiu Hongzhou, Pan lusheng, etc. Opening (winner: the bootom one) Judging Works (click left column)

I'm just back from Chaumont: The inofficial prize winners are: Alain Le Quernec for "Baby does not like to smoke", Reza Abedini for "Reves de Sable", Yuan Youmin for "1. International Poster Biennial at China Academy of Art, Hangzhou" and Michal Batory for a theater poster "The Power Book". More of it on Rene Wanner's Poster Page as soon as I get a catalogue.

I'm off to Festival international de l'affiche et des arts graphiques - Chaumont !

Don't forget tonights Gala Premiere Party at the International Poster Gallery in Boston MA.

There is a fan club for the french graphic designer Sem (a pseudonym for Serge Goursat 1863 - 1934). They publish a regular newsletter about him, on paper. No email, no web site. The president of the Association SEM is Xavier Chiron, 163 rue de Charenton, 75012 Paris, tel 01 46 28 77 41. The association has it's assemble general on June 5, 2004 at 1600 at the Bibliotheque Forney in Paris.

The bookshop Nijhof & Lee in Amsterdam (NL) not only has a large selection of graphic design books and an email newsletter, but also sell posters. They write: We offer here a selection from our collection of stock posters/affiches with the emphasis on modern Dutch graphic design and including work from a.o. Anthon Beeke, Jan Bons, Pieter Brattinga, Studio Dumbar, Dick Elffers, Gielijn Escher, Hard Werken, Frits van Hartingsveld, Marten Jongema, Opera, Erwin Olaf, Lex Reitsma, Una, Wild Plakken.

In June, there will be a large outdoor poster exhibition in Fontenay-sous-Bois, a suburbian city south of Paris, with posters designed by students from the Kunsthochschule Berlin-Weissensee. The topic will be The Seven Deadly Sins

Art Grandeur Nature 2004, a biennale of contemporary art in La Courneuve ( a suburb north of Paris ) has "The Public Image" as it's special theme this year. Sagmeister, Barnbrook, Colrat, etc will be at the opening on Sunday, May 16.

Istvan Mayer is a dealer of hungarian vintage posters in Budapest:Artbooks plakat

Sandy K. is a young german political poster designer, a student of Alex Jordan, co-author of the book "Hoch die! Nieder mit!" that featured thousands of street posters on a CD, a poster collector, and polite provocateur. The title of his web page is "Trust me - I'm a designer". He is currently in an exhibition at the Casa de la Cultura in Buenos Aires, together with El Fantasma de Heredia, Alejandro Ros, Alain Le Quernec, David Tartakover, Alejandro Magallanes, Garth Walker and other political artists. Nevertheless, trust Sandy...

The auction of Modernist Posters on May 10, 2004 at Swann Galleries in New York brought the following preliminary results: Top lots, Prices with buyer's premium 1*, ** The Beggarstaff Brothers, A Trip to Chinatown, 1 of only 3 known copies, London, 1894, $43,700 D 39* A.M. Cassandre, Maison Prunier, in billboard format, 1934, $39,100 C 16** Ludwig Hohlwein, Zoologischer Garten, Munich, 1912, $29,900 D 9* Gustav Klimt, XVIII Secession Ausstellung, Vienna, 1903, $29,900 D 26 Stenberg Brothers, In the Spring, 1929, $27,600 C 19 Ludwig Hohlwein, Mercedes, 1914, $13,800 C 18 Ludwig Hohlwein, Kaffee Hag, Munich, 1913, $12,650 D KEY: *=First time at auction, **=Record for a poster by this artist, D=Dealer, C=Collector, I=Institution
More info from Rebecca Weiss, Media Relations, Swann Galleries,(212) 254-4710 ext. 23, rebeccaw@swanngalleries.com

The Pyramyd - Newsletter Mai 2004 has just been published, a free monthly email newsletter from the publisher that is best known for his french graphic design magazine Etapes. You can subscribe to it from the link above. It has useful information on all kinds of graphic design topics, including posters.

The Museum of Anti-Alcohol Posters, a web site from russian graphic designer Iurii Matrosovich.

X-RATED - Adult movie posters of the 60s and 70s is the latest in the series of movie poster books that Tony Nourmand from the Reel Poster Gallery in London has written. A whole web site is devoted to the book with many large scale poster samples.

The World Congress of Outdoor Advertising takes place in Dubai (AE) from May 25 to May 28, 2004.

I just added Amirali Ghasemi's poster for World Graphic Design Day (April 27, 2004) to Rene Wanner's Poster Page. Amazing how an old man (84) and two young guys (24 and 30) treat the same subject.

The Ladislav Sutnar exhibition that was shown in Prague in 2003, then traveled to Zuerich, will now come to the Neues Museum Nuernberg (DE) from July 7 to September 19, 2004. The czech designer Sutnar (1897 Plzen - 1976 New York), who emigrated to the US in 1939, is one of the pioneers of Modernism in both the Old and the New World. He invented the color orange.

This is the link from the people who organized the competition Children are the rhythm of the world: Der Plakat Kunst Hof Ruettenscheid stellt sich vor... (in german)

Did you see the Ahn Blog ? Ahn Sang-Soo is the famous korean typographer, photographer and poster designer. The tip comes from Reza Abedini.

Xavier Bermudez would like to remind you that the deadline for the International Poster Biennial in Mexico is May 30, 2004 and that you find all information about the event on Bienal Internacional del Cartel en Mexico

The Center for the Study of Political Graphics published their latest email newsletter on May 7. I guess you can subsribe to it somewhere on their web page: Center for the Study of Political Graphics

Istvan Orosz sent me a link to an online version of the catalogue of his poster exhibition in Bratislava in 2002. You can see all 80 pages in a magnification so big that you can read the text. The link is in hungarian, so it takes some clicking around to get to the actual display, but it is well worth it. Istvan will have a personal exhibition in Torun (PL) opening on June 15, another one together with Peter Pocs in Randres (DK) opening May 24, and one in the M.C. Escher Museum in The Hague (NL) (mainly etchings and anamorphic objects - not posters) opening September 24.

Amirali Ghasemi, a sharp young photographer and graphic designer from Tehran wrote me about his photoblog Live from the IRIS (in fact, his email was one of the reasons I decided to try out a blog of my own). While walking around in Amirali's blog, I discovered his picture of a billboard designed by the seasoned iranian poster designer Reza Abedini. What an exciting mix!

Comments on the controversial poster for the Cervantino Festival in Guanajuato (MX) in the newspaper ElImparcial.com (in spanish)

Next van Sabben Poster Auction is on June 6, 2004, in Hoorn (NL)

BDG Deutschland Plakatwettbewerb is a yearly poster competition organized by the Bund Deutscher Grafik-Designer, this year with the theme "Ausgegrenzt. Heute ich - morgen Du". The deadline has been extended from April 15, 2004 to May 30, 2004. The entry fee is 125 Euro for each submitted work.

The Golden Bee International Poster Triennale in Moscow now has a web site Golden Bee

Andrey Logvin's Life is one of the first poster blogs I know, and shows us the daily life of this famous designer from Moscow (in russian).

The first entry in this blog is a link to Rene Wanner's Poster Page. I found this blog program when I tried the new option "blog this!" on Googles toolbar. The button makes it very easy to paste a link to a blog web site.