Prized Vintage Posters from the Golden Age of Skiing 1900-1960
February 4 through March 15, 2016
We are proud to announce our exhibition, Wintersport! Prized Vintage Posters from the Golden Age of Skiing 1900-1960, which features many rarely seen and highly desirable posters from the Golden Age of Skiing. The show will be on exhibit in our Newbury Street gallery in Boston from February 4th to March 15th, 2016.
One of the most sought-after collectibles today, ski posters capture the joy of fresh mountain air and the exhilaration of a downhill run through tree-lined glades. Combining travel, sports and fashion, the ski poster has become a blue-chip category around the world over the last fifteen years.
Wintersport! beckons viewers to the mountains with a dazzling selection of posters from the turn of the century through the Sixties. Fifty rare, original vintage posters tell the fascinating tale of winter sport's transformation from sport to industry.
Exhibition Highlights:
Franz Lenhart, Val Gardena, 1930
This poster for winter sports events at Val Gardena features a breathtaking view of the valley and the Dolomite village of Ortisei at dawn. Although its first Ski Club was founded in 1908, Val Gardena's rise as a ski resort only took off in the Thirties. Shortly after this poster, the first lifts and cable car were built, and in 1937 the Italian National Ski championships were first held there. Franz Lenhart was born in the Austrian Tyrol and moved to Merano in 1922. He quickly became the leading Art Deco poster artist in the region. One of the best - and rarest - posters of the Dolomites!
Jack Rivolta, Up Where Winter Calls to Play - Olympic Bobsled Run, c. 1938
During the Depression, most of America's artists were employed - and indeed rescued - by the Federal Art Project (FAP), which was part of Roosevelt's Works Progress Administration (WPA). Perhaps its most famous campaign was to promote domestic travel in the late Thirties. This Art Deco design promoting Lake Placid is a superb example, with its cool, spare aesthetic and dynamic composition. The bobsled run was built for the 1932 Olympics and was world famous.
Francois Louis Jaques, Ste-Croix-Les Rasses Jura Suisse - CFF, c. 1905
After 25 years as a poster dealer it is always a treat to have a poster drop one's jaw. This is arguably the most artistic ski poster of all time, and its pointillist design in pastel tones is poetic and mesmerizing. All is tranquil and serene as a confident skier admires the joys of this snow filled, timeless moment. This poster was created for the Swiss National Railway which began to operate in 1901. All signs - stylistic, historical and otherwise point to a dating around 1905, making it one of the earliest ski posters from the French part of Switzerland. And what a beauty!
Fritz Hellinger, Jeux Olympiques d'Hiver - St. Moritz Suisse, 1948
This glowing poster chosen for the first Olympics after World War II is silently serene and elegant. Its natural beauty and cosmic harmony expresses all of the optimism after World War II and the pure joy of sport -- a sharp departure from the propagandistic tone set by the so-called Nazi Olympic Games in 1936. St. Moritz had hosted the 1928 Games so that it had the infrastructure in place to host the event in the austere times shortly after WWII.
Pierre Kramer, Zermatt - 26th Skirennen, 1931
Perhaps more than any other ski poster, this Art Deco masterpiece by Kramer expressed the majesty and grandeur of Switzerland and its passion for wintersport. Announcing the 26th Swiss national ski championship, the poster shows a perfectly balanced ski jumper in mid-flight, framed by the towering, distinctive outline of the Matterhorn.
H. Berthold Libizewski, Valais - Le Pays du Soleil, 1949
Libis chose a unique approach to create one of the most sought after ski posters. The ski lift and mountain, typically in the foreground, is visible through a forest of skis seen in the warm glow of the afternoon sun (as their owners presumably enjoy après-ski rituals in the lodge). A lone yellow glove mounted on a ski pole seems to wave whimsically to the viewer to join in.
Selected as Swiss Poster of the Year winner in 1949, Libis' design cleverly stayed on point with the "country of sunshine" advertising theme of the Swiss canton of Valais. Enjoying the most sunny days in all of Switzerland, the Valais also has the most snowfall and the 36 tallest mountains in the country, including the Matterhorn.
Artist Unknown, Ste. Croix et les Rasses - Winter Sport - S.B.B., 1922
The confident gaze of a Roaring Twenties flapper on the slopes invites tourists to take the Swiss Federal Railway to the Swiss Jura, a region along the French border north of Geneva. The poster's minimalist design and the girl's outfit and pose are as striking as any fashion magazine's cover, and reflect the softer French sensibility for style and charm in that part of Switzerland (how different from the more rugged and manly ski images from Swiss-German artists!).
Note that early skiers commonly used a single pole for balance and braking into the mid-1920s, when the Arlberg technique popularized the use of two ski poles. Today, the region is promoted as a cross-country ski destination - it doesn't have any significant mountains for alpine skiing.