Publisher's Synopsis
The first compact history of the American poster. A unique resource for those who are fascinated by American history and popular culture: scholars, collectors, designers, and students. The "modern" American poster has figured prominently in virtually every major political, social, commercial, and cultural development in the country. With arresting images and text, these posters have informed and "sold" Americans on election campaigns, the nation's war efforts, protest movements, consumer products, travel, entertainment, etc. They also comprise a history of U.S. graphic design, reflecting dramatic changes in style, advertising theory, and printing, as well as the emergence of key graphic designers. The American Image provides a rare survey of this popular art, spanning more than one hundred years. Selected from the Resnick Collection, the book analyzes some 70 posters representative of every significant style and theme. They range from design masterpieces to works of historical value, from posters by renowned designers to those created anonymously, and from celebrated images to those never before published. This handsome book includes superb, full-color reproductions; an incisive essay on American poster design by R. Roger Remington; and a preface and authoritative commentary on each image by Mark Resnick. Mark Resnick is currently Executive Vice-President, Business Affairs, for Twentieth Century Fox. He has assembled what is likely the foremost private collection of American posters spanning the 1890s to present. Resnick was the editor of The Critical Vision: A History of Social and Political Art in the United States. He received his undergraduate degree in History of Art from Yale University and his law degree from the University of Southern California. R. Roger Remington is the Massimo and Lella Vignelli Distinguished Professor in Design in the School of Design, Rochester Institute of Technology. An educator since 1960, his interests are graphic design history, theory, criticism, and methods. He is the author of several books, the most recent of which is American Modernism: Graphic Design, 1920 to 1960.
