Poster House Spring Exhibitions: Black Power to Black People: Branding the Black Panther Party and Made in Japan: 20th-Century Poster Art

Poster House, the first museum in the United States dedicated to the global history of posters, announces the opening of its two main exhibitions for the spring season; Black Power to Black People: Branding the Black Panther Party and Made in Japan: 20th-Century Poster Art, running from March 2, 2023 through September 10, 2023 at 119 West 23rd Street and Sixth Avenue in Manhattan.

Black Power to Black People: Branding the Black Panther Party features 37 works dating from 1932 to 1980, that chronicle how the Black Panther Party (BPP), one of the most influential militant groups of the 1960s civil rights movement, devised a specific graphic language to reclaim Black humanity and decommodify Black life. The exhibit includes heroic images of party members, printed materials like The Black Panther newspaper, and political campaign posters. The BPP branded a new movement that relied heavily on the use of bold language, striking graphics, and powerful photographs of its members wearing black-leather jackets and carrying exposed firearms. The BPP’s posters were important for the dissemination of information to the public, widely sharing radical images and slogans that captured a shift in tone in the fight for civil rights. Artists whose posters are exhibited include: Emory Douglas, Dorothy Hayes, Danny Lyon, among others.

Made in Japan: 20th-Century Poster Art features 73 works that highlight the cultural and political shifts within modern Japan that influenced the messaging of its iconic advertising and promotional posters. The exhibition showcases posters throughout the twentieth century, beginning with the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II, with images designed to inspire patriotism, circulate propaganda, and encourage consumer restraint in support of the war effort. As Japanese corporations became global brands following World War II, Japanese artists conceived new forms of graphic media that mixed aspects of traditional Japanese aesthetics with Western design idioms. The exhibit also highlights how Japanese designers began to address social issues through their art at the end of the twentieth century, such as climate change and global peace. The exhibit will include works by artists such as Yusuka Kamekaru, Ikko Tanaka, Tadanori Yokoo, among others.

Both exhibitions come to Poster House through a generous loan from the Merrill C. Berman Collection.

Tickets are $12 for adults and $8 for students, veterans, and seniors. Poster House offers free museum admission every Friday and through the New York City’s public library Culture Pass system. Tickets are available here.