The Poster: Art, Advertising, Design, and Collecting, 1860s-1900s

The Poster: Art, Advertising, Design, and Collecting, 1860s–1900s is a cultural history that situates the poster at the crossroads of art, design, advertising, and collecting. Though international in scope, the book focuses especially on France and England. Ruth E. Iskin argues that the avant-garde poster and the original art print played an important role in the development of a modernist language of art in the 1890s, as well as in the adaptation of art to an era of mass media. She moreover contends that this new form of visual communication fundamentally redefined relations between word and image: poster designers embedded words within the graphic, rather than using images to illustrate a text. Posters had to function as effective advertising in the hectic environment of the urban street. Even though initially commissioned as advertisements, they were soon coveted by collectors. Iskin introduces readers to the late nineteenth-century “iconophile”—a new type of collector/curator/archivist who discovered in poster collecting an ephemeral archaeology of modernity. Bridging the separation between the fields of art, design, advertising, and collecting, Iskin’s insightful study proposes that the poster played a constitutive role in the modern culture of spectacle.

This stunningly illustrated book will appeal to art historians and students of visual culture, as well as social and cultural history, media, design, and advertising.

“Iskin navigates a multitude of artists, locations, and cultural and artistic discourses with dexterity. She has written a towering monument to an oft-neglected subject, which should stand as a model of inquiry into ephemeral visual culture for generations of print historians.”—Sarah C. Shaefer, Art in Print

"This work is by far the most thorough, comprehensive, and exhaustive title available on this topic covering this period. It is an excellent choice for any student of history or of art history. It has particular appeal to students studying graphic design history within the context of the poster and within the era noted in the subtitle. The author's study of the topic and bountiful coverage of the interplay between design and the evolution of advertising is superb. The writing style is analytical and detailed; it includes the history, people, process, and more. A great deal of information is provided to the collector as well. . . . Highly recommended.” —Choice

“This is a study that places the poster at the center of debates on modernity in the second half of the nineteenth century. Crossing the boundaries of fine art and advertising, painting and popular culture, it is a subtle and innovative cultural history of poster art that sets the standard for future studies.”—Lynda Nead, Pevsner Chair of History of Art, Birkbeck College, University of London

“The Poster [is] delightfully filled with little nuggets of the history of this era and its affichomanie that broadened and enriched my understanding of its transformative energy.” —Design and Culture

“A landmark in art historical studies . . . Richly illustrated, international in scope, interdisciplinary in methodology, Iskin’s study constitutes a splendid resource and proposes a valuable methodology for future scholarship.” (Patricia Mainardi, professor emerita of art history, City University of New York)

“Iskin combines a scholar’s erudition with the appreciation of a collector in this definitive study of the poster. . . . Her story of the embrace of the poster by audiences, critics, and collectors alike permanently invalidates our old ideas regarding modernism, in favor of modernity’s rich, colorful, and complex palette.” (Vanessa Schwartz, director of the Visual Studies Research Institute, University of Southern California)

“In this clearly written, attractively produced, and consistently surprising work, Ruth Iskin for the first time gives the illustrated poster of the Belle Époque the comprehensive attention it deserves.” (Daniel J. Sherman, professor of art history, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill)

“Iskin’s lively and compelling book…demonstrates that the poster was a powerful agent of the visual cultural of modernity and captures the excitement as well as the fear the poster aroused.” (Mary Chapin, curator of graphic arts, Portland Art Museum)