International Vintage Poster Fairs Are Thriving

Art Business News, May, 2001 by Laura Meyers

SANTA MONICA, Calif.--From $300,000 Toulouse-Lautrec posters to $400 Russian movie posters, the 3rd Annual Southern California International Vintage Poster Fair, held in Santa Monica in January, had something for collectors of all stripes.

"It's really like walking into a museum," said New York art dealer and first-time exhibitor Robert Chisholm. "There are a lot of absolutely unique pieces here. I've never seen anything quite like this. Even after 25 years in the business, I was staggered at the array offered by all the dealers."

This Vintage Poster Fair gathered 35 dealers and the largest selection of vetted vintage lithograph posters ever to be found in Southern California, according to show organizer Louis Bixenman. The vetting rules were clear: all posters exhibited at this fair were required to be at least 25 years old; not a reproduction of a painting or other work of art but rather an original design of the artist; and created originally for the purpose of advertising a product, service or event.

Works by much-admired and well-known French artists of the 1890s, like Alphonse Mucha, Theophile-Alexander Steinlen, Jules Cheret and Toulouse-Lautrec, were presented for sale by dealers like Chris Yaneff, of Yaneff International in Ontario; Laura Gold, of New York's Park South Gallery; and New Yorker Gary Bruder of Posters & Prints of Toulouse-Lautrec.

Bruder focuses entirely on works by Toulouse-Lautrec and said this narrow market is faced with a dwindling supply. "Prices are continuing to rise, and sales are strong, even with the economy slowing. But works by Toulouse-Lautrec are becoming more difficult to find. It's not unheard of for me to hear of a single Lautrec and to jump on a plane to Europe to buy it," said Bruder.

"The extremely rare, $200,000 to $300,000 lithographs are actually easier to sell than the $5,000 lithographs, because they are in great demand by collectors," Bruder continued. "In his very first lithograph, Toulouse-Lautrec showed a genius that was unparalleled before and pretty much since. Today, a Lautrec [poster] is a fine, museum-quality connoisseurs' piece."

Sticker shock, however, sent many a collector in search of lower prices. "For so many years, people have been collecting turn-of-the-century French posters and French Art Deco, and that market is now drying up unless you want to spend $5,000 and up," noted Chisholm, co-owner of Chisholm-Larsson Gallery in New York. "This marketplace is closed to the beginning collector." Instead, Chisholm brought a large collection of Hollywood movie posters from other countries. "This category is one of our strengths," he said.

Taking a similar niche market approach, Jim Lapides, owner of International Poster Gallery in Boston, brought a group of Swiss posters, Italian posters and Russian propaganda posters, including a sizeable pile of works by Swiss artist Herbert Leupin, the "dean of Swiss advertising."

The Southern California show is just one of a half dozen showcases for vetted vintage posters. As the demand for vintage posters keeps rising among art buyers, the International Vintage Poster Fair has expanded its venues. Launched in New York in 1989 as the successor to the fizzled New York Poster and Postcard Show, the International Poster Fair is now a twice-a-year event in Manhattan--with gross dealer sales in excess of a half million dollars, according to Fair director Bixenman. The fair has also added venues: Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and now, Atlanta and Seattle.

Most of the dealers who were at the Santa Monica show traveled the following weekend to Seattle for the Vintage Poster Fairs' Pacific Northwest debut. "Overall, the show wasn't as strong as Santa Monica, but for a first-time show, I was pleased," said dealer Eric Leyton, owner of Artafax in Scottsdale, Ariz. "We sold about 10 pieces. The response was good--people were asking the right questions."

Gary Gibson, owner of The Vintage Poster in Laguna Beach, Calif., determined that "Seattle is going to be a learning curve. But there is a tremendous amount of money there, in theory, for art dealers to tap." Gibson did better at the Southern California show, as well as the San Francisco expo held in October. "Los Angeles is famous for its movies, and San Francisco for its music. L.A. collectors wanted movie posters, and San Franciscans wanted rock `n' roll. Generally speaking, Chicago is a great city for posters and so is New York, but the West Coast is poised for growth," said Gibson.

In contrast, Canadian dealer Yaneff sold about $22,000 in posters in Seattle (not counting a subsequent, $3,000 Internet sale to a collector he met in Seattle), on costs of about $5,000. "Seattle was tough, but I would certainly go back," he observed. "Los Angeles was strong. But Atlanta was the real surprise. I sold more in Atlanta than I did in New York."

Yaneff specializes in the French Belle Epoch lithographs of the 1890s, but he concentrates on the smaller les maitres d'affiche prints, which start at $300 and top out at about $4,000 for a Mucha. "When you go into a new area, you can't expect a new collector to spend upwards of $5,000," Yaneff explained. "I'm selling the lower-priced things, as well. If you come in with a lower price, people begin to collect."