Members-Only Tour: Sculpting Sound

Poster House members are invited to a private tour of the exhibition Sculpting Sound: Günther Kieser’s Music Posters led by curator Tim Medland. In 1949, Germany was officially split into two distinct countries: communist East Germany, under the authoritarian umbrella of the U.S.S.R., and democratic West Germany. As most American and British popular music had been banned under the Nazi regime as “degenerate,” its sudden mass availability in West Germany was both thrilling and slightly subversive for its citizens. Jazz in particular, with its promise of being a truly free and experimental medium, found avid fans in the country, among them a young Günther Kieser. While Kieser’s career would span four decades and encompass posters for a variety of clients, he is best known for those he made for musical events. Although his earliest posters were for jazz concerts, his posters for rock bands remain some of the most surprising and remarkable of the period, combining meticulously composed, physical elements with the nebulous, free-form, and abstract nature of music. Light refreshments will be served.