College students know that posters have the power to transform a space, often choosing to adorn their walls with depictions of favorite bands or the obligatory “I Heart Beer” slogan. The National Portrait Gallery has caught onto this phenomenon with an exhibit entitled “Ballyhoo: Posters as Portraiture.”
The exhibit displays posters and advertisements spanning 140 years, starting with a wanted notice for Abraham Lincoln’s assasin, and ending with a full-scale “Pirates of the Caribbean” cutout of Johnny Depp. This exhibit not only explores the evolution of advertising, propaganda, and free speech, but also ponders the importance of celebrities in marketing.
Walking around the exhibit, the baseness of advertising becomes blaringly obvious. One ad for the “Got Milk?” campaign nonchalantly states, “I mean do you really think a radical looking, piercing clad, stone washed desert boy could convince women they need at least three glasses of milk a day?” The picture above this quote, taken by Annie Leibovitz, is of a shirtless and very hairy Pete Sampras, the famous American tennis player, holding a glass of milk as he sports the classic “milk mustache.”
Just around the corner from the grizzly Sampras ad is a collection of wartime propaganda posters endorsed by celebrity “war heroes.” Clark Gable and Joe Louis both take battle stances as they encourage the American youth of the 1940s to join the army. Across from these posters is a set of mink coat ads for a “Blackglama” campaign starring actresses like Judy Garland and Shirley Maclaine. It was after the great success of this campaign that “advertisers realized the compelling allure of celebrities,” according to the exhibit’s description.
Fret not, though, the gallery also has a nice selection of free speech and anti-war posters, including a very moving wood carving created by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in remembrance of Martin Luther King, Jr., and a poster depicting the infamous Black Panther leader Huey P. Newton holding a gun and a spear. Another interesting poster depicts Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin on a red and yellow pill with the word “Winner?” printed on it, questioning the virtue of the stars’ drug-filled lifestyles lived that led to their untimely deaths.
Posters may not seem like the ideal candidates for an exhibit in a portrait gallery. But, the portrayals of celebrities, movie stars, activists, and musicians within these posters serve as perfect examples of the genre of portraiture as a whole.
This exhibit can be seen for free at the National Portrait Gallery on 8th and F streets, NW and will continue to run until February 8th, 2009. The gallery is opened from 11:30 am to 7:00 pm and can be reached by metro on the Chinatown stop (redline).
