Posters In The World of Fine Art

For many years it was has been perfectly acceptable

to do a run of posters, sign them, number them, and `viola!'

the poster is ready for sale. Poster-quality reproductions can

and do go for several thousand dollars. This has to do with

the collectability of the poster, and I would emphasize a

poster you buy for forty dollars at your local poster

shop is simply a piece of paper with an image on. It is

not signed by the artist, not numbered by the artist, and

done in reams of thousands. It is very unlikely for this type

of poster to appreciate in any value beyond what you initially

paid for it.

Posters are usually printed on cheap quality paper

because they are done as a mass-market product. This

paper tends to contain acid, which in time will eat away at

the image fading out the colors considerably. However, (acid

free) paper is quickly becoming less expensive and now used

more often than not.

The type of posters we're talking about here have to

do with the piece expressing a unique or fine art subject

matter.  Such reproductions like the Frankenstein Movie

billboard - essentially a poster done in 4 parts, which

auctioned for close to half-a-million dollars, acid in the paper

and all - is an example of a rare subject matter.

With posters closer to the fine art side of the market,

you will find what are called `halt posters'. A lot of pieces

labeled as posters from the turn of the century were quite

the works of art.  Halt posters were done either via

lithography with the artist hand etching the stones or

through various silkscreen processes. They became quite

limited reproductions and through time many of them have

been destroyed or damaged, leaving a surviving edition of