English Poster end of XIX - the early decades of XX century Exhibition

The exhibition English Poster of the End of XIX — the Beginning of XX Century from the Collection of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts opens in the Arts Gallery of European and American Countries of XIX—XX centuries.  The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts inherited a big collection of the applied graphic art of the second half of XIX and the beginning of XX century from the State Museum of New Western Art (SMNWA). In 1948, after liquidation of such a unique institution which started its activity with the integration of two famous collections from the French pictorial art belonging to S. I. Shchukin and I. A. Morozov, the gravure and painting department of the State Museum of Fine Arts received more than two thousand lithograph posters of Europe and America.

The exhibition covers all sections of the museum collection and demonstrates the developmental history of commercial art in Great Britain, introduces the poster collection of London transport, elegancy of political propaganda of the beginning of the 20th century and advertisements for Shell and British Petroleum. The exposition presents legendary works in the history of world design.

Creative work of famous designers Fred Taylor, Frank Newbold, Edward Wadsworth, Edward Koffer and Austin Cooper reflects all significant events occurring in the European art scene in the first decades of the 20th century. The exhibition reveals the peculiarities of English advertisement, emphasising its delicacy, unobtrusiveness and lack of straightforward declarativity whilst highlighting the British sense of humour, which was very typical of British commercial art during this time.

The exhibition is open from December 22nd to February 28th.