Artlog

Batiste Madalena (American, b. Italy, 1902 – 1988) was hired by George Eastman during the late period of silent cinema to design and hand-paint film posters for the Eastman Theatre in Rochester, NY. Working alone over a four-year period and against deadlines that required as many as eight new posters a week for each change of bill, Madalena created over 1,400 original works before the end of his tenure when the theater changed management. Approximately 250 of these posters survived when the artist himself rescued them from the trash behind the theater. Madalena’s rediscovery in the 1980s brought his brilliantly colored, singular designs, done in tempera paint on illustration board, to the attention of critics and collectors, and soon made him one of the most celebrated advertising artists for moving pictures. This exhibition will consist of thirty to forty posters drawn from institutional and private lenders, as well as the Museum’s Department of Film collection.