Plain Language summary: The Posters of Peter Strausfeld

This is what you see in this exhibition:

Poster House is showing posters by Peter Strausfeld.

Peter Strausfeld was a German-born British artist and illustrator.

The exhibition is called Art for Art House: The Posters of Peter Strausfeld.

From 1947 until he died in 1980, Strausfeld created more than 300 advertising posters for films at the Academy Cinema in London. He was the cinema’s official poster designer. A designer makes things like advertisements, books, posters, and packaging.

Academy Cinema was London’s leading art house cinema. An art house cinema shows foreign, independent, or artistic films rather than mainstream movies.

Many of Strausfeld’s posters were for movies by famous directors such as Ingmar Bergman, Federico Fellini, and Jean-Luc Godard.

The posters were displayed in London’s subway and on the streets so that a lot of people would see them. They are some of the most unique movie posters ever made.

Strausfeld also taught graphic design at Brighton College of Art and worked as a book artist, cartoonist, and art director.

Strausfeld’s posters are hand-printed linocuts. A linocut is a type of art print made from carving a design into a sheet of linoleum, putting ink on the surface, and pressing it onto paper.

He also used letterpress printing for the words on the posters. Individual letters made of metal or wood are organized into words; ink is then applied to the surface and the words are printed on paper.

The exhibition has important works, including:

• Murder in the Cathedral, 1952
• The Lost Continent/Friends For Life, 1955
• The Connection, 1962
• Alphaville/The Pier, 1966
• Dutchman/Tonite Let’s All Make Love in London, 1967