San Francisco Art Deco Exhibition Poster

The Poster for the San Francisco Art Deco Exhibition in San Francisco which was produced in 1974. After New York mounted a  first Art Deco Exhibition at Radio City Music Hall, San Francisco created the second event of this kind. Held at the historic Palace Hotel it was a three day festival that included  original Art Deco merchandise, furniture, fashion,  films of the 1920s and 30s, spectacular vintage auto, music played by Peter Mintun and a grand Art Deco Ball.

The event was produced by Ron Young and George Davis The poster was designed by S. Gillaspie and illustrated by J. McDonald for Solutions of San Francisco.  It transforms the iconic Golden Gate Bridge which was built in 1937 in the Art Deco Sfyle , changing the color to a bright teal and embellishing it with stylized fish, ocean and a face in the clouds hovering above an abstract sunburst.

Although the art, architecture and objects we refer to today were created in the 1920s and 30s, and influenced by the Exposition des Artes Decoratif  in Paris of 1925,  the term “Art Deco” did not begin to be used until the late 1960s and early 1970s.  So exhibitions like the one in San Francisco ushered in a new wave of interest in things that had been created in the era between the two world wars, and that captiured the glamor and optimism of that time. There have been nearly non stop “revivals” of interest in Art Deco since this poster was printed so it is especially important to view in the unique way in which it started this series of revival.

This is an original poster and very few copies survive.