Subway Posters: School of Visual Arts exhibition goes to Moscow
The Moscow International Biennale of Graphic Design" Golden Bee 11" takes place in October. The special guest, the School of Visual Arts (SVA) will present the exhibition “Underground Images: School of Visual Arts Subway Posters, 1947 to the Present.” The exhibition brings together more than 50 of the myriad posters created at SVA for display in the vast New York City subway system, and offers a glimpse of the history of the College and the collective talent of its acclaimed design and illustration faculty. Beth Kleber, who heads up the SVA Archives, told Elena Chestnykh about this significant project.
Could you speak about the history of the subway posters?
The idea of the subway poster campaign originated with Silas Rhodes, founder of the School of Visual Arts. SVA opened in 1947, then called Cartoonists & Illustrators School, with the mission to prepare students for careers in commercial art. The school created several subway posters during that time, but the subway advertising campaign really began in earnest in the late 1950s, after the school was renamed School of Visual Arts and adopted a broader goal of educating artists working in many different disciplines within the framework of a comprehensive humanities and social sciences curriculum. Rhodes had been inspired by Paris street posters by artists promoting their exhibitions and knew something similar in the New York City subways could reach a large pool of potential applicants who might be interested in an expansive art education. SVA was founded on the principle that students should be taught by working professionals, so the subway posters have always been (and continue to be) created by SVA faculty, all established artists. Certainly one of the central messages of the subways posters is, if you come to SVA you can study with the person who made this poster.
Could you say something about the most interesting and famous artists who have participated?
Approximately fifty artists (and counting) have designed and illustrated subway posters; many artists, from Milton Glaser to Gail Anderson, have created multiple posters. As of 2014, there have been more than 150 subway posters. The posters of the 1950s-1970s ranged from a distinctly American take on the European modernist style (Ivan Chermayeff, Tony Palladino, George Tscherny); to the eclectic, witty, and highly accomplished work of Push Pin Studios and its diaspora (Milton Glaser, Paul Davis, James McMullan); to emerging neo-expressive illustration (Robert Weaver, Phil Hays, Bob Gill). While many of those artists have continued to design posters for SVA, the school has also drawn on many other faculty members as they joined over the years including Paula Scher, Jerry Moriarty, Marvin Mattelson, James Victore, Stefan Sagmeister, Mirko Ilić, Carin Goldberg, Louise Fili, and Viktor Koen. And there are many others.
Are there some rules, conception or certain style that artists should have followed?
I think artists are attracted to the project because it offers them freedom to interpret the idea of what it means to dedicate one’s life to being an artist. Obviously, the exposure is tremendous, millions of New York City subway riders see your work, but I think the illustrators and designers approach it as a singular and deeply personal artistic opportunity. They can take risks that they couldn’t take with their other clients. The earlier posters tended to be more conceptual and symbolic; the graphics were, by and large, bold and easy to see from a passing subway car. More recently, artists like Marshall Arisman, David Sandlin, and Nathan Fox have taken advantage of the captive audience of the subway platform, sharing a more detailed and complex narrative. While there are vast stylistic differences among the SVA subway posters, and the artists have always been given great freedom in how they choose to interpret a given line of text, I think the posters share a sensibility. They demand a dialogue with the viewer through a combination of provocative copy and a central compelling visual idea that communicate the principle that an artist should never be complacent.
Did this project have some kind of impact on the visual culture of the city, on the advertising culture?
SVA was the first college to advertise in the subways, and was one of the very first to create subway advertisements that placed the quality and sophistication of the art and design at the forefront. In the early 1950s, prior to first SVA poster, subway advertisements contained lots of text and little finesse, just an overt sales message. The sixty-year span of the SVA subway poster campaign has made it one of the most enduring public art projects in New York City.
Could you please talk about the participation of the SVA in the "Golden Bee 11" ?
“Underground Images” was introduced to Serge Serov, president of the Biennale, by Mirko Ilić, who is an SVA faculty member (MFA Illustration as Visual Essay department) and a jury member of the Golden Bee competition. The exhibition is curated by SVA Executive Vice President Anthony P. Rhodes (who has served as creative director for the posters since 2007), and organized by Mirko Ilić and Francis Di Tommaso, director of SVA Galleries. The show has traveled extensively since June 2013 to locations including Slovenia, Serbia, China, and France. Previously, an SVA subway poster exhibition traveled to several locations (including the Cooper Hewitt in New York and Espace Pierre Cardin in Paris) from 1987-1989.
The exhibition will be on view at Central House of Artists (CHA.ru), Krymsky Val, 10, Moscow, October 7 through 12, 2014.
On Thursday, October 9, 10:00am, SVA Communication Director Michael Grant will open the lectures program with a presentation on the College and the history of the subway posters. At 1:00pm, Mirko Ilić will discuss his work and latest book, Lettering Large: The Art and Design of Monumental Typography (Monacelli Press, 2013). The lectures take place at Central House of Artists, Krymsky Val, 10, Moscow.
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