Page 192 - Swann Galleries - Modernist Posters - Sale 2314 - May 13, 2013

GEORGE DELMERICO (DATES UNKNOWN)
243 ● A MARVEL-OUS EVENINGWITH
STAN LEE. 1972.
221/2x18 inches, 57 1/4 x453/4 cm.
Condition B+ / B: tears and pin holes at edges; creases
and abrasions in image. Printed on thick paper.
In 1972, promoters rented out Carnegie Hall in
an attempt to raise Stan Lee, the publisher of
Marvel Comics, to a higher national profile. By
most accounts, the improperly conceived and
poorly organized event did not go very well. This
poster, however, remains an iconic reminder of
that Silver Age of comic history. The artist was a
Pratt graduate with no attachment to Marvel
itself. His composite image of 19 famous
Marvels’ faces is an excellent graphic assemblage
and popculture puzzle. There were 300 copies
of the poster printed for sale the night of the
show. The 1970 copyright notice on the bottom
is a printer’s mistake. [700/1,000]
TOMOKO MIHO (1931-2012)
244 ● 65 BRIDGES TO NEW YORK.
1968.
291/2x45 inches, 75x1141/4 cm. Darien House,
Inc., New York.
Condition B+: creases and abrasions in margins
and image; pin holes along right and left edges;
small stain in lower left corner. Paper.
One in a series of 10 images entitled, “Aspects of
New York,” published by the Container
Corporation of America (CCA). The series
contains the work of both Miho and Peter
Teubner. John Massey, the art director of the
CCA after Walter Paepke’s death, considered
Miho “a master of dramatic understatement,”
and this image lends weight to George Tscherny’s
observation that she was “a minimalist and
modernist in the best sense of the term.” It is
highly poetical, employs strong colors (which
erase all realistic detail), yet is constructed with
disarming, uncluttered ease. A similar low-key
approach is applied to the typography. Müller-
Brockmann 279, Images-of-an-Era 93, Power of
the Poster p. 209, MoMA 497.1978.
[700/1,000]
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