Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
During the Golden Age of Magic--the 1880s to the 1940s--magicians and prestidigitators fought a veritable advertising war. In the United States, Canada, and Europe, city walls were plastered with posters offering tantalizing previews of magician's most spectacular tricks. Poster designers and printers were inspired by all variety of phantasmagoric imagery: devils and demons, skeletons and skulls, cards and rabbits, alluring assistants and symbols of exoticism. Here, 250 breathtaking posters, mostly dating from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, retrace the social history of this still-active phenomenon. These magnificent, large-format chromolithographs immortalize the magicians and the acts that marked the world of modern magic.
Seven authors recognized as experts in their respective fields introduce this fabulous array of color and imagery. Published to accompany an exhibition at the McCord Museum in Montreal, which was gifted in 2015 with one of the largest collections of magic posters and documents in the world, the Allan Slaight Collection, this book will delight graphic designers, illustrators, and magic enthusiasts alike.
Synopsis
In 2015 the McCord Museum in Montreal, Canada, was gifted with the Allan Slaight Collection, one of the largest treasuries of posters and documents on magic in the world. Published in conjunction with the exhibition Illusions. The Art of Magic at the McCord Museum, this volume presents 250 exceptional posters from this collection, dating from the 1880s to the 1940s. During this period, known as the Golden Age of Magic, droves of traveling magicians and prestidigitators fought a veritable advertising war. All over the United States and Europe, city walls and billboards were plastered with posters offering tantalizing previews of their most spectacular tricks, giving poster designers and printers of the era a golden opportunity to flex their imaginations and load their work with devils and demons, skeletons and skulls, bodies and decapitated heads, playing-cards and rabbits, alluring assistants, phantasmagoria and esoteric symbols. Seven authors recognized as experts in their respective fields introduce this dazzling array of color and fantastic imagery, providing insights to explain the full historic, social and artistic value of these magnificent posters.