תערוכה בגלריה: ארץ נהדרת- כרזות בעיצוב האחים שמיר

The invention of lithography in the late eighteenth century led to the proliferation of posters in the first half of the nineteenth century. Since then, posters have been used for advertisements, to convey messages, and as propaganda means. Their design and colors aim to capture the attention of passersby. Consequently, they mostly include simple, catchy text in large letters and large, colorful images. Many artists in Europe and the United States – including Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Alphonse Mucha, and Jules Cheret, to name but a few – designed wonderful posters announcing dance shows and concerts, fashion events and operas, bull fights and bicycle competitions. Growing interest in this medium has found expression in numerous exhibitions and in the development of public and private  poster collections.

Posters are a good source of information about Israel’s history, reflecting as they do the issues on the country’s agenda during its early years. Election posters emphasize the different parties’ platforms, ads present consumer goods and encourage people to buy local produce, and other posters warn against divulging military secrets to the enemy, advocate carefulness on the road, and encourage immigrants to learn Hebrew.

The current exhibition features 67 of approximately 150 posters designed in Israel by the brothers Gabriel and Maxim Shamir. They immigrated to Palestine from Riga, Latvia – Maxim in 1934 and Gabriel in 1935 – and opened the Shamir Brothers Studio on Rothschild Boulevard in Tel Aviv, which remained active until the early 1990s. Their most famous work is the design of the coat of arms of the state of Israel. In addition, they designed many of the state's stamps, coins, and currency notes. The Shamir Brothers worked for both private enterprises and public institutions, and so designed posters that advertise consumer goods as well as those that proclaim public needs of the hour. Accordingly, the exhibition presents a wide variety of posters: some advertise products that no longer exist, such as Megiddo cigarettes; others emphasize the Jewish community’s values by calling on youth to join the army and exhorting their elders to study Hebrew; the Histadrut Federation of Labor proclaims 48 years of existence and encourages relocation from the city to the country; and political parties promise to take care of their voters. Contemporary means of communication, headed by television and the Internet, have considerably lessened the need for posters. However, they still flourish in the public sphere, from huge ads to announcements of cultural and artistic events.