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For over 100 years, women have played a key role in the branding of the London Underground. When poster art was in its infancy, artists like Mabel Lucie Attwell were using their skills to inform and entice passengers, in bold new ways.
Now, London Transport Museum is exhibiting over 130 original transport posters and artworks, in Poster Girls: A Century of Art and Design.
From the 'golden age' designs of Mary Koop and Dorothy Dix in the 1920s-30s, to their 21st century sistren, Louisa St. Pierre and Ruth Hydes, the exhibition shows how themes and designs have changed over the decades, and how the designers of yore have often influenced those that have followed in their footsteps.
Says Sam Mullins, Director of London Transport Museum: "By theming our latest poster exhibition around the work of female artists and designers, we are providing a new filter through which to appreciate the Museum’s world class poster collection. It also provides an opportunity to reflect on the changing social, economic and political conditions that affected women’s lives and work over the last century – which is rather fitting as we approach the centenary in 2018 of votes for women."
Says Ruth Sykes, graphic designer and associate lecturer in graphic design at Central Saint Martins: "These artists have and continue to make an incredibly important contribution to poster design but generally they are not as well-known as their male contemporaries. The Poster Girls exhibition will help to redress this by bringing their work to the attention of a wider public audience."
Visitors can explore the themes of the exhibition with a public programme of Poster Girls events – including talks, Friday Lates and Late Debates.
Poster Girls: A Century of Art and Design runs at London Transport Museum from 13 October. Entrance included in museum ticket price.
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