THE AMERICAN ARTISTIC POSTER OF THE 1890S.
Item
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Title
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THE AMERICAN ARTISTIC POSTER OF THE 1890S.
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Identifier
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AAI8103961
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identifier
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8103961
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Creator
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SERWER, JACQUELYN DAYS.
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Contributor
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Milton Brown
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Date
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1980
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Fine Arts
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Abstract
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The American artistic poster of the 1890s was not a mere imitation of its French and English counterparts. Though there was some inspiration from abroad, the American poster had its own indigenous development. As American interest in the applied arts manifested itself during the seventies and eighties in various ways, a unique arts and crafts aesthetic took form that recognized the validity of fine workmanship in both a mass-production situation and a workshop setting. This new aesthetic combined with America's acknowledged superiority in printing and reproduction demonstrated most clearly by the American monthlies of the eighties made the poster of the 1890s possible. Between 1893 and 1900 book, magazine, newspaper and bicycle posters decorated public spaces promising to educate the masses while at the same time inadvertently inspiring a new generation of elite collectors. At the height of the phenomenon, the poster participated not only in the artistic and economic life of the decade, but in the social sphere as well: the trend toward self-improvement and the broadening of the woman's role outside the home.;The uniqueness of the movement in the United States is further demonstrated by the special partnership that existed between artists and business people. Through the intervention of commercial interests in sponsoring articles and exhibitions, posters were elevated to the status of fine art. At the same time advertisers enjoyed their new role as art patrons.;The profile of the poster artists also offers some peculiarly American characteristics. Included in their number were Eastern, Southern, Midwestern and Western artists, indicating the decentralized nature of the American movement. Some postermakers were trained as commercial artists, others had attended art school, still others had begun their careers as architects. The significant participation of women constitutes another notable facet of the poster epoch in the United States.;No single style emerged during the course of the poster period. Some designs could be fitted into an art nouveau/Pre-Raphaelite mold while others defied established categories. Edward Penfield's homespun simplicity flourished along with John Sloan's Japanese-inspired treatment and Maxfield Parrish's more illustrative vision. In spite of the range of styles, native decorative tendencies combined with art nouveau attitudes constituted a basic feature of all the American work.;In the area of iconography, the "new woman" was the most frequent subject. Postermakers showed her to be independent and unidealized in all of her various activities. Some portrayals were rather traditional, displaying attributes copied from European imagery. In most cases, however, the irreverent American artist transformed the original significance into something new.;Though the American artistic poster of the nineties was in its own period a focus of critics and the subject of innumerable exhibitions, the poster heyday or "craze" lasted only a short time. Early assessments of the poster as the fitting expression of a democracy and the art of the future proved inaccurate. The commercial/artistic balance that defined the poster at its height was gradually compromised. Collectors demanded more artistic specimens, causing advertisers to conclude that their purposes were no longer being served. As a result, their crucial sponsorship of the poster diminished and the artistic poster declined. Moreover, the artistic poster had appealed to genteel people who wished to aestheticize even the marketplace. Events at the end of the decade discouraged that impulse. The artistic poster became impractical and superfluous.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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Art History
