Original artwork description:

Posters aim to sell product - merchandise, events, destinations, ideology, lifestyle, message. The art deco travel posters of the 20s and 30s enticed people to the fashionable fleshpot destinations of the time. But poster artists don’t create a message, they merely transmit it in ways that are optical, graphic and poetic. Hopefully! This is small section of the Gemeentemuseum in Den Haag – which started out life as the Museum of Modern Art. It was designed by renowned Dutch architect HP Berlage and built between 1931-1935. Close up the museum doesn’t look like this. There is a complicated pattern of bricks – for strength Berlage stipulated each layer be perpendicular to the next – and the turquoise metal strips are showing distinct signs of wear. The outside of this building was not universally admired (unlike the inside) but posters aren’t real life! They are idealised dreams. The Gemeentemuseum is still a fabulous destination.

Materials used:

Acrylics

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