12 SCHOOL OF VISUAL ARTS SUBWAY POSTERS
School of Visual Arts Scholarship Fund
[School of Visual Arts]: 12 SCHOOL OF VISUAL ARTS SUBWAY POSTERS [Collector’s Edition]. New York: School of Visual Arts Scholarship Fund, 1986. Original edition. Cardboard portfolio folder with tipped on label containing 12 loose, color 10.75 x 16.25-inch plates. 1990 SVA promotional mailing poster laid in. Plates in uniformly fine condition. Portfolio folder with light stress wear to outer edges and a tiny tear to the tipped on label, so a nearly fine set.
[12] 10.75 x 16.25-inch color plates housed in a 10.75 x 16.25-inch cardboard portfolio folder featuring subway poster advertisements created for the School of Visual Arts in the 1980s. SVA has produced more than 180 posters for the New York City subway platforms, in the process creating one of the most enduring public art projects in the City.
Posters by:
- Marshall Arisman
- Gene Case
- Ivan Chermayeff
- Paul Davis
- Robert Giusti
- Milton Glaser
- Marvin Mattelson
- James McMullan
- Jerry Moriarty
- Tony Palladino
- George Tscherny
- Robert Weaver
- Pablo Picasso
In the mid-1950s, SVA was at the vanguard of academic institutions pursuing new strategies to attract students. SVA took its message to previously unplumbed depths, to the platforms of the subway system. Its advertising posters were both thought-provoking and eye-catching, featuring the work of legendary artists like Ivan Chermayeff, Milton Glaser and George Tscherny. All practicing professionals on the faculty at SVA, they used the poster commissions to explore the possibilities of graphic art, and to hone their personal voices on a public stage. Like the College itself, SVA's subway posters have become New York City icons, as well as incitements to creativity and risk-taking.