Poster House Presents Fall 2024 Exhibitions JUST FRAME IT: HOW NIKE TURNED SPORTS STARS INTO SUPERHEROES And LESTER BEALL & A NEW AMERICAN IDENTITY

Poster House, the first museum in the United States dedicated to the global history of posters, will present five new exhibitions for the fall season. The two main exhibitions, Just Frame It: How Nike Turned Sports Stars into Superheroes and Lester Beall & A New American Identity, will open to the public on September 26, 2024 and close on February 23, 2025.

Three capsule exhibitions will also open this fall: 

• Fantastical Streets: The Theatrical Posters of Boris Bućan (September 26, 2024-February 23, 2025)
• Munich 1972: Sports Posters of the XXth Olympic Games (November 14, 2024-April 13, 2025)
• Leaving the Smoke Behind: Enjoying an Awayday (November 14, 2024-April 13, 2025)

The press preview for Just Frame It: How Nike Turned Sports Stars into Superheroes and Lester Beall & A New American Identity will be on Thursday, September 26 from 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM at Poster House, located at 119 West 23rd Street, Manhattan.

“Our fall exhibitions tell an incredible story of how posters have both chronicled and created culture across eras and geographies in the 20th century” said Julia Knight, Director of Poster House. “From the celebrity-focused, photo-driven work of Just Frame It to the classically artful illustration of 1920s Britain in Leaving the Smoke Behind, Poster House's walls will be filled with brilliant designs that permeated everyday life and memorialized extraordinary events. We look forward to welcoming New Yorkers to take it all in, beginning in September.”

Fall 2024 Exhibitions:

Just Frame It: How Nike Turned Sports Stars into Superheroes

September 26, 2024 - February 23, 2025

Curated by Adam Howard

Just Frame It chronicles how one company paved the way for modern sports advertising. During the 20th century, it became a rite of passage for a professional athlete to cement their iconic status by having their persona memorialized on a Nike poster. Today, in an age where athletes' images are much more accessible and “just like us,” these 60 posters may seem quaint—but they're also larger-than-life and undeniably entertaining, just like the stars they depict.

Photographers whose posters are exhibited include Chuck Kuhn, Bob Peterson, and Bill Sumners. This exhibition comes to Poster House through a generous loan from Bruce “ImaPaqRat” Fisher. This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA).

Lester Beall & A New American Identity

September 26, 2024 - February 23, 2025

Curated by Angelina Lippert

This exhibition will mark the first time the entirety of Lester Beall's famous “electrification series” will be on view in a single show. On the heels of the Depression and as part of the New Deal, Beall was commissioned by FDR's administration to create posters promoting the Rural Electrification Administration (REA), which was bringing power to remote areas of the country. The exhibition features fifty-five pieces, eighteen of which were groundbreaking REA works Beall designed, helping cement his reputation as the pioneering modernist in American graphic design—some say the only true American pre-war modernist.

This exhibition would not be possible without the support of Mark and Maura Resnick and Michael Kleeman. This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA).

Capsule Exhibitions: 

Fantastical Streets: The Theatrical Posters of Boris Bućan

September 26, 2024 – February 23, 2025

Curated by Angelina Lippert

Fantastical Streets features six works that represent a snapshot within Bućan's expansive career, focusing on the monumental works he created for his first season with the Croatian National Theatre in Split, who hired him between 1982 and 1986. While he had previously produced a few large-format posters for other organizations or events, these images, made up of six separate sheets of paper, became his best-known designs, transforming exterior walls into urban canvases for his artistic explorations. In 1984, the posters were seen as so particularly Yugoslavian that they were chosen to represent the country at the 41st Venice Biennale, revealing his work to a global audience and solidifying him as one of the most exciting and innovative poster designers in the world. 

This exhibition would not be possible without the generous support of Mirko Ilić. This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA).

Munich 1972: Sports Posters of the XXth Olympic Games

November 14, 2024 – April 13, 2025

Curated by Michael Bierut

Experts debate which Olympics were the best designed, with Mexico City, Los Angeles, Barcelona, and Grenoble drawing enthusiastic advocates. But a consensus usually forms around the graphic program created for the XXth Olympiad held in Munich, West Germany, in 1972. This exhibition features 21 works that highlights the program created for the 1972 Munich Olympics at its best, one for each event, each capturing both a moment in time and making a bid for permanence. Together, they demonstrate a magically calibrated balance of consistency and surprise, control and power, precision and exuberance: no less than the athletes they celebrate.

This exhibition comes to Poster House through a generous donation by Thomas Strong.

Leaving the Smoke Behind: Enjoying an Awayday

November 14, 2024 – April 13, 2025

Curated by Tim Medland

This exhibition features 27 works from the Golden Age of London Passenger Transport Board posters, when many artists were commissioned to produce designs, primarily for London Underground and its various connecting networks of tram and bus lines. In this post-World War I era, the campaigns aimed to encourage off-peak travel across the wider network through eye-catching, attractive designs, thus driving up revenues for under-utilized lines. Most of these posters were not advertising the train lines themselves but were actually vividly colored images focused on pastoral or unspoiled destinations for weekend day trips, such as historic houses, beaches, or sporting events like rowing races, all on the outer reaches of the Tube lines.

This exhibition comes to Poster House through a generous loan from the Hall Art Foundation. 

About Poster House

Poster House, which opened in June 2019, is the only museum in the United States dedicated exclusively to the global history of posters. Poster House's mission is to explore the hidden histories of this art, while mapping their role in today's media landscape and encouraging the continued evolution of design. Poster House is dedicated to presenting the impact, culture, and design of posters, both as historical documents and methods of contemporary visual communication. Learn more at posterhouse.com.