Description
The poster was skillfully designed by the talented graphic artist George Hemming in 1932 and was printed in 1934. He rendered it a Precisionist style of smoothly delineated forms with strong contrasts of light and shadow in which details are subordinated to full shaded geometric shapes. Hemming’s use of a dramatic perspective of the ship as seen from below and parallel diagonal lines gives the vessel a monumental appearance. His artistic approach overall relates to the work of Hemming’s contemporaries who also portrayed industrial architecture in a Precisionist style, such as Charles Sheeler (1883-1965).
In the first half of the 20th Century NYK serviced trips to in numerous locations round the world to all major continents. It made frequent crossings to San Francisco and Seattle in the United States. NYK Line was founded in 1885 and is now known as Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha. It is still a major force in maritime industry in the fields of marine and air transportation and luxury passenger excursions. It now operates a wide ranging fleet of over 800 ships including container ships, tankers, cruise ships, and many other types of vessels.
Shueisha is a publishing company in Tokyo, founded in 1925. It has long been one of Japan’s leading publishers encompassing a wide range of subjects and genres, including magazines, literature, art, books, manga, and graphic novels.
Condition: Generally very good recently professionally cleaned and deacidified, and a short tear in lower margin restored verso with Mulberry paper, now with light remaining, toning, wear, and handling.
References:
“Company Information.” Shueisha. https://www.shueisha.co.jp/en/ (1 July 2024).
“George Hemming.” MutualArt. https://www.mutualart.com/Artist/George-Hemming/4E4115513CC7A874 (1 July 2024).
“Nippon Yusen.” Wikipedia. 29 June 2024. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nippon_Yusen (1 July 2024).
