Meansheets is a movie poster blog that features vintage movie posters, French movie posters, and the movie poster artists and illustrators from the 1950s, 1960s, 1970's and 1980s who designed them.
Thomas Kinkade, one of the more controversial commercial artists of our time, has died over the weekend at the age of 54. Well-known — and sometimes ridiculed — for his cozy cottage industry of cutesy, quaint storybook paintings and reproductions (and questionable business practices), Mr. Kinkade was nothing if not a pioneer for the concept of Artist as Businessman, as his artwork reportedly brought in hundreds of millions of dollars.
Taking a cue from his illustration idols, Norman Rockwell and Walt Disney (who he later drew media attention to when he was accused of drunkenly urinating on a Winnie the Pooh statue in a Disneyland Hotel while muttering, “This one’s for you, Walt.”), Kinkade also dabbled in the film biz, getting his start working as a film animator on Ralph Bakshi’s Fire and Ice (poster art by the great Frank Frazetta) — as well as producing a Hallmark holiday TV movie based on his own life story, The Christmas Cottage, starring Peter O’Toole.
And to ensure that his tainted painted legacy was complete, he was even castigated profiled on 60 Minutes back in 2001.
I ♥ Maciej Zbikowski — but who wouldn’t love this Polish movie poster designer after seeing so many of his graphic love letters from the 1960s and 1970s on EMoviePoster and other sites…
In boxing, they say styles make fights. Well, you could say the same thing about movie posters (although most movie poster fans are lovers not fighters.)
But if there were a brawl to break out among two International movie poster artists — Italian stallion, Silvano (“Nano”) Campeggi, and Spanish designer, Jano (Francisco Fernández Zarza), would be an excellent battle. (MoviePosterDB)
As Julia Roberts’ movie star character once quoted Rita Hayworth in Notting Hill, “They go to bed with Gilda, but they wake up with me…”
Well, vintage movie poster fans should all be so lucky as Adrian Curry of MUBI recently posted a glamorous layout of Rita Hayworth posters done by Italian artist, Anselmo Ballester.
In response to Curry’s Rita rundown, I thought I’d share a few fabulous French versions of the actress beauty by Boris Grinsson –– courtesy of the wonderful poster blog, Art by Grinsson.
I never need an excuse to boast the poster work of Boris Grinsson (seen below on bottom right), but ESPN’s story about slugger, Albert Pujols, recent signing with the Los Angeles Angeles gave me a perfect one…
With awards season in full swing, I think We Need To Talk About Kevin has won the Oscar for Most Variations of One-Sheet Designs.
And the marketing dept might be running out of ideas since this latest poster bears a striking resonance to Polanski’s babyRosemary’s Baby. (ImpAwards)
The 1930s and 1940s French posters of Henri Cerutti go down smooth as a sweet, fruity glacé. Hailing from the golden age of the gargantuous 4-panel poster (240×160 cm, or 94x 63 inches for you Americanos), Cerutti’s mural-sized designs were not only big, but beautifully elegant as well. (Intemporel)
