Keeping Posted

Posters in the U.S. have rarely achieved the artistry that was common in Europe in the days when Toulouse-Lautrec limned Jane Avril. Promoters too often preferred to slap uninspired or badly lettered placards on walls and fences. But in the past six years, U.S. art lovers have become accustomed to seeing the works of Robert Indiana, Roy Lichtenstein, Richard Lindner and Ben Shahn on posters boosting concerts, festivals and even the presidential campaign. Many of the best were inspired by a Connecticut grandmother and art collector named Vera List.

Vera List is the wife of Albert A. List, former chairman of the diversified Glen Alden Corp. (movie theaters, retailing, textiles), and she does not exactly have to work for a living. She feels that seeing good contemporary art is as necessary as "reading a newspaper, so you'll know what's going on in the world," and that posters are one way to keep the man in the street posted. Her program got under way in 1961, when the List family foundation made a grant of $200,000 to New York's Lincoln Center to pay for well-known artists to design more elaborate posters than might otherwise have been used. Soon, requests for quality posters began pouring in from colleges, museums and other institutions. To meet the rising demand, Mrs. List last fall joined with Boston Art Dealers Barbara Krakow and Portia Harcus to set up HKL, Ltd., a commercial company that accepts commissions, supplies the artists and supervises production at half a dozen different printing workshops.

This year, with 27 posters rolling off the presses, Mrs. List is busier than ever. For its May opening, Washington's National Collection of Fine Arts commissioned posters by Lee Bontecou, Chryssa, Allan d'Arcangelo, Sam Francis, Larry Rivers and Claes Oldenburg. The New York City Center has ordered a 25th anniversary portfolio in which Lowell Nesbitt, George Segal and Jim Dine will celebrate the drama, ballet and comic-opera companies.

Some artists have to be introduced to the intricacies of lithography, serigraphy and other techniques. Others have to be guided in making their lettering readable at a glance. Quite a few get carried away with the fun of it all. With a special edition of her 1967 Pittsburgh International poster interweaving script, numbers and a fanciful Mideast landscape, Mary Bauermeister threw in a set of hand-painted wood cutouts. Collectors can glue them on and make it a collage.

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