Many teenage rooms would have looked very different in the past if the ‘king of posters’ Engel Verkerke had not been there. Director Timo de Rijk says that the exhibition in the Design Museum Den Bosch is a tribute to him.
“In the 1950s, Verkerke realized that people had to express themselves. According to her, this can be done by hanging posters of cars, beaches or naked girls on the wall. It did not exist before that time.”
plastered walls
The posters that Verkerke would sell with his company Verkerke Reproductions were extremely popular. “Especially in the 60s, 70s and 80s,” says De Rijk. “Star posters have also been popular for a long time.”
Photographer William Rutten’s room was full of them. “The Kiss is by The Beatles, Queen,” he sums up. “And especially during my time as a Doe Maar fan I had a lot of posters.”
Many of his own photos have also been printed as posters in the past. “For example, a photo shoot with the Spice Girls. These are my best selling photos. I was making 200,000 guilders a year because these photos have appeared in magazines all over the world.”
Replaced by Instagram
Even now there are still posters. There are furniture stores and online stores that sell them. But covering all the walls with it? We don’t do this anymore. “I don’t think he’s coming back,” says director De Rijk. “Who or what you feel connected to is now on your phone instead of hanging on the wall.”
William Rutten also sees that we look at posters in a completely different way. “There are no romantic stories around these pictures. The artist was completely unreachable. You only read about the artist in a pop magazine, and usually it was already old,” he explains. “You only had a poster. Now you can get everything from follow an artist on Instagram, we no longer need a poster to distribute.”
Source: RTL
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