A collection of posters that commemorate milestones of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts is displayed at The Cole Art Center @ The Old Opera House through Jan. 20. Cole Art Center is Stephen F. Austin State University’s historic downtown art gallery.
The “Lincoln Center Posters” exhibition features premium limited-edition prints designed to commemorate Lincoln Center’s greatest events, from film screenings to operas. The initiative highlights the contribution made by philanthropist and art collector Vera List, who in 1962 created a poster program advertising the new Lincoln Center complex.
Inspired by artist-designed posters she had seen in Paris, she earmarked seed money for what would become the List Art Poster Program, later known as the Vera List Art Project, featuring some of the most notable names in contemporary art, from Andy Warhol to Roy Lichtenstein, Ben Shahn to Robert Indiana. Each poster advertised a new building or event at the Lincoln Center venue, chronicling how a now-famous New York institution was introduced to the public through posters. In a nod to her visionary legacy, the Vera List Art Project commissions artists to this day, and proceeds from the sale of these prints continue to benefit Lincoln Center's innovative cultural programming.
Artists represented in SFA’s Cole Art Center show include: Ed Baynard, Mel Bochner, Chuck Close, Helen Frankenthaler, Jon Friedman, John Gibson, Dorothy Gillespie, Howard Hodgkin, Wolf Kahn, Alex Katz, Sol LeWitt, Glenn Ligon, Lowell Nesbitt, Jules Olitski, Peter Plagens, Josef Raffael, Larry Rivers, Kenny Scharf, Julian Schnabel, Donald Sultan, Terry Winters, Jamie Wyeth and Kes Zapus.
The Cole Art Center is located at 329 E. Main St. For information about this and other exhibitions, call (936) 468-5500.