BOSTON, MASS.- International Poster Gallery is presenting "Summer Getaway! 22nd Annual Summer Poster Show," including more than 50 original vintage travel and leisure posters from near and far, plus a new discovery of 30 rarely-seen airline posters.
The show is paced by a fine collection of airline posters. The headliner, Bermuda - 5 Hours by Air PAA by Adolph Treidler c. 1937, pictures a handsome young couple heading out on their bicycles under a star-filled sky. Overhead, a Pan Am flying boat is silhouetted by the full moon as a sailboat glides by in the harbor. Inspiring honeymooners to the island for decades, this romantic poster is one of the earliest to advertise Pan Am's New York to Bermuda route, which became the initial stop on the world's first transatlantic route.
After World War II, fast and long-distance turbo-props made air travel more affordable for vacationers. An explosion of delightful new ad campaigns to "Everyman" locations created powerful consumer airline brands. A series in the show by Joseph Feher for United Airlines revealed the beauty of the West, including Yosemite, Colorado and the Pacific Northwest, along with Southern California and San Francisco.
The most iconic posters of the era however were the kaleidoscopic, friendly and often whimsical posters of David Klein for TWA. The best of this series are on display in the exhibition, including his kinetic views of the Hollywood Bowl, Times Square and San Francisco Bay in the rare early printings featuring the era?s most beautiful plane, the Lockheed Constellation turboprop. In 1957, the debut of the Boeing 707 jet made airline travel even more affordable and fast, and classics from other airlines are included.
Ocean, train and rail travel are also well represented. A.M. Cassandre's 1929 poster for the launch of the Statendam is the perfect expression of the Art Deco style. Power and speed are the message of the streamlined, geometric design by the father of the Machine Age style.
The railway section features several fine designs by Alo for the French railways in the 1920s, and Swiss Rail works by Emil Cardinaux and Daniele Buzzi. From the US is Edward Eggleston's stunning Depression-era Atlantic City from the Pennsylvania Railroad. With its fabulous architectural setting and glamorous bather, it promised an escape to an idyllic world not unlike a Hollywood film.
Summer sport posters echo the theme of adventure, particularly sailing, auto racing and beach themes. Included are Otto von Hanno's charming 1930s Summer in Norway poster of sail boats playing cat and mouse amongst the fjords and the 1936 Art Deco Australia Surf Club by Gert Sellheim. The show concludes with psychedelic Rock & Roll posters from the Fillmore Auditorium and beautiful post-war jazz festival posters from Willisau.
"As always, our 22nd Summer Show is full of fun combined with great design. This year, the energy of Mid-Century Modernism is front and center," states Gallery owner Jim Lapides, a nationally recognized authority on vintage posters and poster collecting. "Many of these are avidly sought by museums today and are still very affordable to beginning collectors."
