Ballyhoo! Posters as Portraiture is the online version of the current exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC. I just saw this exhibition two weeks ago and decided to see if there was an accompanying online exhibition.
Collection Description
"By interweaving the three themes of poster art—celebrity, promotion, and advertising—this exhibition from the National Portrait Gallery’s collections examines how a famous face can enhance a poster, and, conversely, how posters have defined reputations of prominent Americans. These images remind us of the ubiquitous presence of visual messages outside the world of fine art. Widely disseminated forms of popular portraiture—like the poster—remain a profound influence in our culture."
You can take an audio tour of this collection narrated by the curator or you can browse through each image.
The site is divided into 8 different sections: Broadsheets and Show Posters, The Poster Craze, Wartime Propaganda, Export of American Culture, The Product and the Promise, Politics and Protest, Postermania of the 1960s, and Film and Music Advertising.
On each of the pages there is a description of the content along with the images.
Object Characteristics
The images on the site can be enlarged via Flash Player. Once you click on the image a new screen pops up that allows you to view the image and click on a tab for the accompanying text describing that image.
You can also view images of the actual galleries at the NPG.
The site does not display all 60 posters found in the exhibition. I was disappointed to find that they did not have an online image of the my favorite poster from the exhibit of the Hitchcock film, Notorious.
Metadata
The metadata that is available for the objects include: the title, persons portrayed, artist, year, media type, dimensions, home within the Smithsonian Museums/Libraries/Archives and provenance.
Intended Audience
Anyone interested in poster art, portraiture etc... Or just a visitor to the NPG's website.
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