Date: 1994
Size: 36 x 28.25 inches
Size: 36 x 28.25 inches
Artist: Josef Flejsar
Printer: Toppan Printing Co.
About The 100 Best Posters Collection: This poster was originally created by Josef Flejsar in 1962 for a sobriety campaign. This is an official reissue from 1994 from the collection The 100 best posters from Europe and the United States / 1945-1990.
"In describing the rationale behind this portfolio, Hiromichi Fujita, the President of Toppan Printing Co., explains in the introduction that, "the decision to publish The 100 Best Posters from Europe and the United States 1945-1990 was motivated by our earlier collection of Japanese reproductions published four years ago . . . the first collection was intended as a small contribution to the field of graphic design, which has enjoyed an inseparable relationship with the printing industry for many years now." The selection of posters in this collection were chosen by a panel consisting of Steven Heller, Alain Weill, Milton Glaser and Yusaku Kamekura. All posters chosen (...) were reproduced and were then donated to art museums and related educational institutions in 200 locations around the world. In addition to being forms of expression, these posters, which were created in the diverse social conditions that have prevailed since the end of World War II, truly serve as a testament to the age in which they were produced." (Source: swanngalleries.com)
About the poster: Of the innumerable posters against alcohol use that almost every country commissions each year, very few escape banality. While Josef Flejsar's poster features the classical elements of the subject (a skull, photos of car wrecks), he puts them to especially effective and creative use: the drawing, which looks as if it were sketched rapidly on a black background, possesses the appropriate violence and brutality; placing the auto wrecks in the eye sockets communicates the message instantly. The text seems hastily scrawled on the bottom to complete the picture. (Source: The 100 best posters from Europe and the United States / 1945-1990, p.78)
This poster is in good condition and ready to be framed.