Christian Larsen

What are the criteria for a poster to be included in your collection?

There are no hard and fast rules for curatorial consideration. A poster must communicate a message instantly and memorably in a strikingly legible combination of word and image. More than just communicative function, it must indelibly mark the mind and the eye with emotional resonance. The poster is judge by how clearly and skillfully he or she demonstrates that intention. The best posters should be powerful expressions of their culture and time.

 

What do you think are the most important posters in MoMA's collection? Why?

A.M. Cassadre's billboards for Nicholas and Ford are extraordinarily powerful works that synthesize rigorous design methodology and construction with sensitivity to the built environment. The billboards, like his illustration on the cover of MoMA's 1936 exhibition catalogue devoted to him, strike the viewer like an arrow through the eye. Although only represented by a few posters in MoMA's collection, the work of Beggarstaffs (James Pryde & William Nicholson) was uncannily prescient of art and design movements to follow suit over the course of the 20th century.

 

About Christian Larsen

Christian Larsen joined The Museum of Modern Art in July 2000 and is Curatorial Assistant, Research and Collections, in the Department of Architecture and Design.
He organized 50 years of Helvetica (2007), MoMA's first focus on typography; Digitally Mastered (2007), co-organized with Paola Antonelli, Senior Curator, Department of Architecture and Design, that presented the latest innovations in digital design, also
co-organized with Ms. Antonelli. Mr. Larsen is currently working on an exhibition demonstrating structural evolution in Jean Prouve's furniture designs.