DUTCH POSTERS 1997-2017 - A selection by Anthon Beeke

On Friday October 26, during the Dutch Design week in Eindhoven, the book Dutch Posters 1997-2017 will be presented. Prior to the book presentation, where Lidewij Edelkoort will speak, there is a performance at 15.30. Beeke's controversial poster Troilus and Cressida will be rolled out from the museum's characteristic turret. 

Because Anthon Beeke died shortly before the publication, this book is also a posthumous tribute to one of the best post-war poster designers in the Netherlands. 100 posters from the book have been selected for this presentation, which will be on display from 20 October until 4 November at the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven.

In 1997, Anthon Beeke published Dutch Posters 1960-1996. This book is now a collectors item. Since then no overview book on Dutch posters has been published. Time for part 2, according to young designers Janneke Smale and Omar Saiid, who initiated this edition.

For Dutch Posters 1997-2017, 150 designers have been invited who have submitted 3,500 posters together. About 350 posters of this book have been included. The selection was partly determined by the visual narrative that is told, by showing images that reinforce each other or react to each other.

This selection of twenty years of cultural posters gives a wonderful picture of the development of the Dutch poster. They say something about the time in which we live, about the art we make, but about design. Beeke shows that Dutch poster makers are part of a rich tradition, which goes back to makers such as Piet Zwart, Dick Elffers, Willem Sandberg and Wim Crouwel.

Today the poster fulfils a different role on the street than two decades ago, when the forerunner of this book came out. Frederike Huygen (author) places the posters against the background of developments in the profession and the medium. Bob Witman (author) writes about the criteria that Anthon used making his selection. Partly because of that personal choice, this has become a surprising and rich work. 

After all proofs were approved and Dutch Posters 1997-2017 was ready to go to the printer, Anthon Beeke unexpectedly died of a cerebral infarction on 25 September 2018 in his hometown Amsterdam.