Timeless Journeys: 21st Annual Summer Poster Show!

At International Poster Gallery

On view through Labor Day September 2, 2014

BOSTON, MA: International Poster Gallery (IPG) proudly presents the 21st Annual Summer Show: Timeless Journeys. Travel posters awaken our dreams of adventure, nostalgia, beauty, and wanderlust perhaps more than any other poster category. Experience traveling to these exotic vistas through more than 50 posters from the Golden Age of Travel to Mid-Century Modern. Highlights include early Pan Am posters, a spectacular range of Air France posters, and smaller graphics such as luggage labels. Timeless Journeys runs through September 2, 2014 at International Poster Gallery, 205 Newbury Street in Boston. The gallery is open daily from 10am-6pm and Sunday from noon-6pm. For additional information, please visit www.InternationalPoster.com or call 617.375.0076

The headliner of the summer show is San Francisco – Hawaii Overnight! Via Pan-American circa1939. In January 1939, Pan Am’s Boeing 314 made its first scheduled flight from San Francisco to Hawaii, dubbed the Honolulu Clipper the seaplane landed in just 20 hours, its 36 passengers enjoyed gourmet dining, dressing rooms and bunk beds to travel 3,600 miles, capped by a delightful native greeting on arrival. The poster captures the romance of travel as well as the pandemonium and novelty that met the plane upon its landing in Pearl Harbor. It is believed to be the work of Frank McIntosh, who came to fame in the 1920s creating a series of Art Deco covers for Asia Magazine and later menu cards for the Matson Line Steamship Line.

The exhibition also includes a large selection of posters from Air France, which was formed in 1933 from four different airlines. According to Gallery Director Jim Lapides, “From the beginning, Air France produced superb posters that over time made it one of the best airline series ever created. We have some of the earliest and most historically significant designs in the show, including the first one produced for an African route, and the first from 1947 when the airline recommenced flights after World War II. Indeed, unlike most rivals, Air France continued into the 50s and 60s producing classic lithographs from top artists promoting its world-wide network.”

Closer to home is Joseph Binder’s New York Worlds’ Fair 1939 which combines images of planes, trains, and ocean liners with the majestic Trylon and Perishpere symbols of the New York World’s Fair. The classic Art Deco image, thousands of which were sold to the 44 million attendees of the fair, is now very hard to find. It captures New York’s unbridled spirit and optimism even in the face and depression and world war.

On a smaller scale, the summer show features a wide collection of vintage hotel and airline labels. These popular small graphics came into vogue around 1900 and represent one of the first successful viral marketing concepts -- travelers proudly advertising their destinations and hotels wherever they went. Leading printers around the globe created beautiful labels for hotels shipping lines and airlines well into the 1950s, such as the striking Semiramis Hotel – Cairo circa 1930.

In addition to gallery shows and special exhibitions, IPG’s award-winning website, www.internationalposter.com offers one of the largest, most comprehensive online collection of vintage advertising posters in the world. Originally launched in 1998, the site contains nearly 5000 images accessible through a powerful search engine.