Comix!

07.11.2007 – 24.02.2008
Plakatraum
Exem, Non, Schweiz, 1990, © Exem
Thanks to its position between art and popular culture and the way it combines concise, gripping texts and images the comic offers ideal material for appropriation by the poster. Using contemporary examples the exhibition traces the roots of comics in poster design. The Japanese coloured woodcut, Jugendstil and Pop Art have influenced the comic, each in their own way. In the Russian Rosta windows from the 1920s pointed narratives based on images were already employed to spread social contents in a way that reached the masses. Up to the present day designers have continued to use the characteristics and formal aspects of the comic – the rich use of colour, stereotypes, a drastic quality in drawing and a reduction of the vocabulary of gestures and expressions –  to convey topical messages. Posters for cultural events offer a rich stylistic diversity and also confirm how elements from the language of comics have grown to achieve graphical independence.


Discussions in the exhibition
Thursday, 18.00, Plakatraum
06.12.2007: Alex Trüb and Martin Woodtli (in German)
31.01.2008: Exem and Christian Humbert-Droz (in French)


Publication: «Poster Collection» 16, Museum für Gestaltung Zürich (ed.), Comix!, Lars Müller Publishers, ISBN 978-3-03778-099-2, CHF 36.–
 
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