Rare Posters Spring Auction Starts May 22 at 10AM!!!

Over 500 of our Rarest posters and Signed Prints will be auctioned in this special event. Lichtenstein, Chagall, Miro, Rauschenberg, Longo, Frankenthaler, Lewitt, Picasso, and Le Corbusier are just some of the artists that are included. Many lots starting at just $50!

Click HERE to preview the complete Auction Catalog and place your bids.

With a longstanding reputation for quality fine art prints, New York Graphic Society posters have become sought-after collector’s items.  Specializing in publishing museum and gallery posters, many of which have never been published by any other party, the New York Graphic Society is one of the largest publishers of fine art.  Due to the high quality, heavy-stock paper and small edition sizes of 500, NYGS is a respected brand among print collectors.  Rare Posters is excited to present our collection of NYGS posters, including works by Picasso, Miro, Rouault, Malevich, De Staël and more!  

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York contains one of the world’s largest collections of art. Spanning classical antiquity, medieval, renaissance and modern art, the Met’s comprehensive collection is reflected in its exhibition posters.  These posters, many of which are rare printer’s proofs, include images from the museum’s permanent collection as well as special exhibitions.  You will not find these posters for sale at any museum store, as they are limited edition posters that were printed in conjunction with specific Met exhibitions.  Many art collectors seek out these posters not only for the great art, but also as an historic link to one of art’s most important institutions.     

The partnership of mononymous artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude produced some of the most recognizable pieces in contemporary art.  One might say the pair’s prime medium was ambiguity, with all final pieces being temporary installations that left behind only memories, photographs and a multitude of preparatory sketches and collages.  “I think it takes much greater courage to create things to be gone than to create things that will remain,” said Christo of his process.  The couple’s environmental installations were decidedly non-conceptual, the only concept being the immediate aesthetic impact and temporary nature of their work. 

The partnership of Christo and Jeanne-Claude, in both art and matrimony, was a peculiar one.  They were both born on the same day.  Neither would fly in the same aircraft, so that if one had died in a crash, the other could continue with their projects.  Although the two used only their first names, their son Cyril used Christo as his last name.  These eccentricities only added to their myth.  While Christo was formally trained at art academies, Jeanne-Claude was entirely self-taught.  She claimed that her interest in art was purely based on Christo, and that if he had become a dentist, she would have chosen the same profession.  Their first collaboration came in 1961 with a work called The Iron Curtain.  The duo blocked a narrow Parisian street with 89 industrial oil barrels.

The couples most recently completed project, “The Gates (1971-2005)”, was a series of 7,503 bright saffron gates that hung a woven nylon fabric of the same color.  The project attracted equal amount of acclaim and controversy.  New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg presented the duo with the "Doris C. Freedman Award for Public Art" for the installation.  The work also became the subject of ridicule for Keith Olbermann and David Letterman.

Often Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s work was dated according to how many years it took to complete the project, including initial idea to completion.  For example, “The Gates (1971-2005)” took 25 years to gain permission to complete.  Similarly, other site-specific pieces such as “Wrapped Trees (1966-98)” and “Wrapped Reichstag (1971-1995)” used this device.

The collaboration that lasted over half a decade ended in 2009 when Jeanne-Claude died of complications from a brain aneurism.  The couple were working on “Over the River”, fabric panels over the Arkansas River in Colorado and begun in 1992, and The Mastaba, 410,000 oil barrels arranged as a mastaba, a pyramid like tomb, in the United Arab Emirates.  Christo continues to work on the project by himself.    

To merely call Leo Castelli a famous art dealer would be an understatement.  One of the most influential people in American art, Castelli single handedly altered public consciousness by introducing Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art, Conceptual Art and Minimalism to the landscape of New York City’s gallery scene.  Always the champion of up and coming artists, the Leo Castelli gallery was a launch pad for some of contemporary art’s most famous names. 

Born Leo Krausz in Trieste, Italy (his Jewish family name changed under Mussolini’s fascist laws), Castelli’s foray into the art world came in 1951 with his curation of the ground breaking 9^th Street Art Exhibition.  The show featured a thoroughbred stable of new Avant-garde artists, with works by Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko.  The show, which cost Castelli only a few hundred dollars, established him as a tastemaker and forecaster. “Leo was more interested in what was coming up than in what had already bloomed,” explained his first wife Ileana.   In 1957 he opened the Leo Castelli gallery, at its first location on E 77^th St.  The following year saw the addition of Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg to the gallery.  Castelli was, reportedly, immediately taken with Johns’ uniquely American vision, offering him a show within minutes of meeting him.  Soon to follow was a twenty-three year old Frank Stella.  Castelli had an immense talent for discovering genius, but not without contention.  When he brought on Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, both Rauschenberg and Johns protested the inclusion of the Pop artists.  The Leo Castelli Gallery also saw Minimalism’s inauguration into the art world, recruiting Donald Judd, Don Flavin and Robert Morris to the gallery. 

Castelli died on August 21,1999 in his apartment in Manhattan.  The Leo Castelli Gallery continues to operate at 18 E 77^th St.  His legacy to art is immeasurable.  Rare Posters caries several posters from the galleries’ historic exhibitions by Richard Serra, James Rosenquist, Donald Judd, Ellsworth Kelly, Bruce Nauman, Robert Rauschenberg and more! 

When most people think of New York, they summon images of postcard Gotham; the Empire State building, Times Square and Central Park.  Manhattan remains the primary destination for visitors, but without a trip across the East River, tourists are only seeing a fraction of the city’s identity.  The Dutch-founded town of Breuckelen began as a rural farming community.  Today, it is a handful of villages that grew into each other.  This is reflected in the architecture of Brooklyn.  Unique from the structural identity of Manhattan, the history of Brooklyn is told in its buildings.  From the colonial homes of its agricultural past, to the iconic brownstone row houses that confirm its Dutch origin, to the Victorian mansions that once housed Hollywood celebrities, one only needs to squint to look back in time. 

Brooklyn is globally renowned for the role it has, and continues to play, in the arts.  The Brooklyn Museum holds New York City’s second largest art collection with 1.5 million pieces.  The Brooklyn Academy of Music, or BAM, is a celebrated performing arts center that has specialized in cutting edge and avant-garde performance since 1908.  Newer performance spaces like the Issue Project Room and 285 Kent St are being praised for maintaining Brooklyn’s status as a cutting edge cultural center.   Writers that have called Brooklyn home include H.P. Lovecraft, Colson Whitehead, Jonathan Safran Foer and Walt Whitman, who wrote extensively about his life there.   Brooklyn has a rich history in film as well.  Looking at the East River, one might feel like Marlon Brando in “On the Waterfront”, a story of union corruption amongst dockworkers in Brooklyn.  Cult classics such as The Warriors, The French Connection, Goodfellas, Saturday Night Fever and many films by Woody Allen were set in the borough.   Director Spike Lee set many of his films in the neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant.  Brooklyn is also the setting of hit TV series like The Honeymooners, Welcome Back Kotter, The Cosby Show and Bored to Death take place there.  Not only is Brooklyn a consistent tour stop for many famous recording artists, but also boasts an active local music community.  This is celebrated at events like the Northside Music Festival, Brooklyn Electronic Music Festival and the summer performances in the Prospect Park Bandshell. 

            Today, Brooklyn offers more destinations for visitors than ever before.  The borough has experienced a culinary boom, and can offer a sophisticated dining experience once thought to be exclusive to Manhattan.   Almondine Bakery in Dumbo, voted best bakery in New York by New York Magazine, serves as the cities premier French bakery.  Reflecting its diverse populace, foodies can find authentic Middle Eastern, Jewish, Spanish, Chinese and Italian cuisines; Brooklyn being home to two New York Pizza institutions, DiFara’s and Grimaldi’s.  Whether it’s the famous Peter Luger Steakhouse (named best steakhouse in NY by Zagat 26 years) or the New American chic Farm on Adderly, Brooklyn runs the gamut on repasts.  Guests to New York should not be surprised to learn that Brooklyn offers several first-class accommodations for travelers.  Putting a Brooklyn spin on Manhattan luxury, boutique hotels like Hotel Le Bleu and Hotel Le Jolie are conveniently located in proximity to some of Brooklyn’s most famous attractions.  But if one insists on staying in the city, access to Brooklyn could not be easier.  The Williamsburg, Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridge are all iconic gateways to the borough, all of which are accessible to cyclists and pedestrians.  The newly built East River Ferry provides spectacular views of Brooklyn and Manhattan, linking the two boroughs via nine ports.  

            While you are visiting our city, we encourage you to visit the Rare Posters warehouse in DUMBO, located directly under the Manhattan Bridge overpass.  We stock vintage and hard to find art from museums and galleries around the world.  We carry works from over 500 different artists, including celebrated New York artists like Keith Haring, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Christo.  Located within walking distance from the York St. F and High St. A subway stops, and conveniently accessible from the Brooklyn Bridge, Manhattan Bridge and Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, we hope you make Rare Posters a part of your Brooklyn experience.      

The 1950’s saw a massive shift in attitude toward certain elements in art that were, until that point, considered to be congruent with its definition.  The usual conventions of sophistication, abstraction and romance were challenged in the wake of the mass culture and advertising that followed WWII.  As in the way the Dada movement reflected WWI Europe, the Pop Art movement sought to celebrate the banal, consumerist landscape of Britain and America by using ironic imagery as means of cultural contemplation.  Some would even consider Dadaist Marcel Duchamp’s “Fountain” as “Proto-Pop” for its use of a found object that made no attempts to justify its presence.  In this tradition, artists such as Richard Hamilton, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein used mundane, representational imagery that was highly sarcastic and referenced ideas that would have previously been considered too unsophisticated for fine art.

            During the 1950’s, American advertisers had begun adopting components of modern art.  Imagery that was once considered cutting edge was being made far less powerful by its saturation of the public conscience.  As a result, artists had to be more aggressive in finding new ideas that were beyond the grasp of American advertising.  In this exchange, the notion of Pop Art was born; advertisers taking from artists, and artists taking it back in a process of “cultural alchemy”.

The Judson Gallery in New York City was an early presence in the movement, exhibiting work by Jim Dine, Claes Oldenburg, Robert Rauschenberg and Tom Wesselmann.  Eventually artists such as Robert Indiana, Richard Lindner, James Rosenquist and Yves Tinguely began exhibiting in commercial galleries in New York and Los Angeles. 

“I've decided something: Commercial things really do stink. As soon as it becomes commercial for a mass market it really stinks,” prophesized Warhol, as he had countless times.  As an art movement, Pop Art’s fifteen minutes were up once it was claimed by advertisers, becoming a sort of parody of itself.   As the Dadaists built the foundation for Pop Art, its ideas made the birth of poster modernism possible.  Still, experimentation with representation, irony and the celebration of the mundane appear in the work of contemporary artists.