Chinese Propaganda Posters

okay, so it's a bit of a stretch to relate Chinese communist propaganda to the thirties, but never mind, it's too cool for me not to post it.. and in a way it feels like the artistic style in some communist countries never developed, so it's like they continued living in the the 30s or 40s forever.:

Stefan Landsberger's Chinese Propaganda Poster Pages

"This site is dedicated to the Chinese propaganda poster as it has been produced from 1937 till the present day. So-called propaganda art has played a major supporting role in the many campaigns that were designed to mobilize the people, and throughout the People's Republic, the propaganda poster has been the favored vehicle through which art conveyed model behavior. I've been collecting these Chinese political posters for many years now, and have brought together quite a nice collection of some 2,000 titles, spanning almost six decades of Chinese poster production. From time to time, new sections will be added to the site, devoted to the political, social and economic movements and developments that have found their way into visual propaganda over the years. As my collection expands over time, existing sections will expand as well in order to include more or more exciting posters that I have acquired."

1930 posters

The International Poster Gallery has an excellent search feature that makes it possible to search for posters from particular decades. There are more than 600 posters from the 1930s.

The site also has an excellent outline, "A Brief History of the Poster".

Here are some of my favorites:

Vintage travel posters

Kerne Erickson (see one of the previous posts) is a contemporary artist capturing the essense of vintage travel posters, but this exhibition from The Los Angeles Public Library is the real thing:

"Speed, style and grace — these epitomize the Golden Age of travel in its simplest form.
The 1920’s and 1930’s ushered in an unprecedented era of travel to exotic and romantic destinations. And nowhere was this more clearly expressed than in the travel posters of that time. The Los Angeles Public Library ’s collection of travel posters perfectly captures this era. With this exhibition, the Library shares its bounty with the public for the first time."

some of the posters can be bought from the 'vintage' sections at www.allposters.com or www.art.com.

Kerne Erickson

Kerne Erickson is a contemporary artist who does graphic art in a nostalgic retro style. Really, really nice! Buy prints here.

Jean-Gabriel Domergue

Wohoo! Jean-Gabriel Domergue (1889 - 1962). Buy art prints here.

Soviet Posters

And International Institute of Social History has Soviet Posters!

Karoly Grosz, The Universal movie posters

Universal horror poster artist Karoly Grosz is one of the most legendary poster designers of the 1930s. I'm not an expert on this guy, and there's not that much info available online, so you'll have to buy horror movie poster books or search for old universal horror movie posters in online poster shops like Movie Goods or Movie Poster Shop.

But i know that the poster for "The Mummy" is usually considered his masterpiece, and it IS a really awesome piece of work.

The Bride of Frankenstein (1931)


Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932)

The Invisible Man (1933)

The Mummy (1932)


The Old Dark House (1932)

The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)