hand painted russian movie posters

hand painted russian movie posters. collectors will pay hundreds of dollars for a hand-painted poster of ‘matrix’ or other classic films ........................

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hand painted russian movie posters

for so long the bright heralds of currently showing films
at cinemas around the country, foreign movie billboards
were painstakingly hand-painted –
and the effect is quite stunning.

the posters were made in response to a nascent form
of mobile cinema - entrepreneurs brought the latest foreign videos
and films to russian’s rural hinterlands where they set up
make-shift movie houses and they hired ‘professionals’
to promote the films with outrageous naive paintings.
some theaters even had in-house artists to keep up with the
torrent of releases.

classic soviet posters have been the subject of art exhibits
around the globe and international collectors will pay hundreds
of dollars for a hand-painted poster of ‘matrix’ or other classic films.
while these posters are reappraised as art, not everyone thinks the
painters are true artists. nowadays if you are using a hand-painted
poster the public will think it's a cheap movie.

that’s why in recent years those marquees are increasingly
a dying art. artists who specialise in painting movie posters
are finding it increasingly difficult to find work.
distributors have left them behind for slick digitally designed ones.
a hand-painted canvas movie banner today costs between
$60 and $80 and can be used outside three or four theaters
before the elements take their toll. a computer-designed banner
printed on plastic costs up to $200, but can travel to over
20 theaters before it fades.

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