Now Playing: Hand-Painted Poster Art from the 1910s through the 1950s

Published in cooperation with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, this collection of hand-painted poster art features many pieces by the renowned Batiste Madalena as well as other collectible artists.

Now Playing tells the highly visual story of the movie posters painted by artists who were commissioned by theater owners in their communities. Unencumbered by having actually seen the films they were promoting, these artists were free to improvise, resulting in dramatically different renderings for the same film. Slide, Powell and Berthelsen present the first comprehensive and original research on this art form, and illustrate it with posters that have been lost to the public eye until now.