Exhibition — Aug 28, 2010 until Jan 8, 2011

For over a century, the Stedelijk Museum has made use of posters to inform the public about its exhibitions.

Beginning when the museum opened in 1895, a wide variety of poster designs and styles reflected the different exhibitions and organizations housed within the museum. However, this changed in 1945, when graphic designer Willem Sandberg became director of the Stedelijk. Until his retirement in 1962, Sandberg personally designed almost all of the museum’s printed matter. His posters communicated simple messages in bright colors. From 1963 until 1984, the poster designs of Wim Crouwel gave the museum a contemporary look. Under Wim Beeren’s directorship, from 1985 to 1993, the design often favored the more expressive style of graphic designer Anthon Beeke. 
In the years up to and including the temporary closure of the museum, many different designers were invited to create posters for the Stedelijk.

In this way, the Stedelijk became one of the most important patrons of graphic design in the country. The reprinted designs exhibited here relate the history of an institution that grew from an assortment of period rooms-cum-exhibition space, into a pioneering museum for modern and contemporary art and design.