I am writing from a museum in Miami Beach, The Wolfsonian, and am curating an exhibition, Aerial Vision, that will include a Johannesburg tourism poster (see below). I am trying to ascertain its date and any additional information. We have it a c. 1930 but I am wondering if it might be later, around the time of the 1936 Empire Exhibition? Also, it is obviously from a skyscraperâbased on the view, is there any way someone from the community might have an idea of where it was meant to be?
Lea Nickless | Research Curator | The WolfsonianâFIU | lea@thewolf.fiu.edu
The Johannesburg Tourism Poster
Aerial Vision Exhibition - November 19, 2021âApril 24, 2022 - The WolfsonianâFIU @ 1001 Washington Avenue
Aerial Vision will explore how early 20th-century inventionsâairplanes and skyscrapers, each considered the embodiment of human achievement and a harbinger of a better tomorrowâsparked an era of remarkable creativity and new systems of seeing the world. Met with awe and excitement, both technologies introduced novel approaches for living, working, and traveling and opened up previously inaccessible vertical perspectives to modern spectators, from artists and designers to urban planners and everyday office workers. This exhibition of paintings, posters, furniture, and more will draw from the Wolfsonian collection to examine these heightened positions of power and privilege, revealing connections between newly available viewpoints and their impact on the artistic imagination.
