Michael Brewster from Studio M Vintage Poster Restoration Sydney, with over 8 years experience working in New York City managing some of the biggest poster restoration studios and vintage poster galleries, will talk about the market and its changing dynamic. He will identify some of the questions that we all have in respect to "what makes a poster collectable and what do we do if we get one?"
Michael will talk about the posters as the new medium for collecting and how to distinguish what to look for based on his experiences in what is now a very serious market for the collector. "It is important to stabilize the piece and save something that was never meant to be kept. This is the history of design that has been produced on paper that was inferior, we need to save it this respect."
Vintage Posters were originally pasted onto fences, walls and boards. They have now found their way into private collections, libraries, museums and galleries. As a result vintage posters require restoration in a process which allows them to be stabilized and displayed in an acid-free archival manner.
Linen backing is now accepted as the industry standard on the international market for poster preservation of an item that would have been otherwise torn down, pasted over or destroyed. The most important element in grading a poster's condition is it's appearance that is defined by the colour, lines and it's overall design.
Every poster is different and originally had an expected life of two to three months. They are now a lot older than that and most of the time not in
A+ condition, but this is ok. The talk will outline the history of the
poster and the printing processes used and what to expect when you are looking at the graphic tools that have outlined this form of visual communication.
Biography
Michael Brewster was born in Sydney. After studying fine art at the University of Western Sydney and later the College of Fine Arts Sydney, he travelled to New York City, where he worked as a printer for Greg Burnett, producing prints in collaboration with Sean Scully, Richard Serra and Richard Tuttle. As a natural progression Michael turned to vintage posters where he trained as a restorer and worked his way up to be recognized as one of the best on the international market. He has also managed some of the top galleries in vintage posters and has brought back a broad knowledge of printed ephemera to Australia. He now owns and runs Studio M Vintage Poster Restoration, the only one of it's kind in Australia specializing in vintage poster restoration.
More information: www.nga.gov.au