If you are a fan of retro poster design, then make sure you hang an extra large stocking out for Santa this Christmas. Hayward Gallery in the Southbank Centre, London, has been holding some of the world’s most important exhibitions for the past 50 years, but an exhibition is nothing without some good publicity material. In the course of its life the Hayward has amassed a brilliant collection of promotional posters, and no less an authority than Catherine Flood, Curator of Posters and Prints and the V&A, has been through the archives to select the best 50 examples to present in a cracking A3 format tear-out-and-frame publication.
On Display: 50 Posters for the Hayward Gallery features the work of practitioners who would go on to define contemporary British graphic design; luminaries such as Neville Brody, Theo Crosby, Richard Hollis and Roger Huggett are featured in a volume which serves as a fascinating history of mid- to late-20th Century graphic design and an interesting review on the Hayward’s past events. As well as an overarching essay by Flood, each poster (rescanned and colour corrected on perforated leaves) comes with an explanatory text by ArtReview contributing editor Hettie Judah explaining the history of the poster and the exhibition it promoted. Copies are available to order from Hayward Publishing.
Show: Josef Koudelka, 1984
Artwork: Josef Koudelka, CZECHOSLOVAKIA. Slovakia. Zehra. 1967. Gypsies, 1967
© Josef Koudelka, courtesy Pace/MacGill Gallery, New York
Show: Arte Italiana: 1960‐1982, 1982‐83
Poster design: Pierluigi Cerri/Electa, Milan
Show: Hayward Annual 1982: British Drawing, 1982
Poster design: Richard Hollis
Show: Dada and Surrealism Reviewed, 1978
Poster design: Edward Wright
Show: Gilbert & George: Pictures 1982‐86, 1987
Artwork: Gilbert & George, We, 1983
© the artists, courtesy White Cube
Show: NEW WORK 2: John Ashworth; Nicholas Monro;
Peter Startup; Victor Newsome; Gerald Newman; Bryan Kneale;
Malcolm Hughes; Trevor Halliday, 1975‐76
Show: Hayward Annual’78, 1978
Poster design: Richard Hollis
