Tickets

Underground Gallery: London Transport Posters 1920s–1940s

Jul 28, 2010–Jan 10, 2011

MoMA

E. McKnight Kauffer. Power, The Nerve Centre of London’s Underground. 1930. Lithograph, 40 5/8 × 24 3/4″ (103.2 × 62.9cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of the artist

After World War I, striking modern posters began to trans­form the stations of London’s underground railway system into public art galleries. The posters, designed by significant artists like László Moholy-Nagy, Zero (Hans Schleger), and Abram Games, were the crucial face of a pioneering public transport campaign for coherence and efficiency that also included station architecture, train interiors, and Harry Beck’s iconic Underground map (1931–33). This installation presents over twenty posters that speak to the experience of modern London—from the promotion of culture and entertainment to the anxieties of daily life during WWII.

Organized by Juliet Kinchin, Curator, and Aidan O’Connor, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Architecture and Design.

Artists

Installation images

How we identified these works

In 2018–19, MoMA collaborated with Google Arts & Culture Lab on a project using machine learning to identify artworks in installation photos. That project has concluded, and works are now being identified by MoMA staff.

If you notice an error, please contact us at [email protected].

Licensing

If you would like to reproduce an image of a work of art in MoMA’s collection, or an image of a MoMA publication or archival material (including installation views, checklists, and press releases), please contact Art Resource (publication in North America) or Scala Archives (publication in all other geographic locations).

MoMA licenses archival audio and select out of copyright film clips from our film collection. At this time, MoMA produced video cannot be licensed by MoMA/Scala. All requests to license archival audio or out of copyright film clips should be addressed to Scala Archives at [email protected]. Motion picture film stills cannot be licensed by MoMA/Scala. For access to motion picture film stills for research purposes, please contact the Film Study Center at [email protected]. For more information about film loans and our Circulating Film and Video Library, please visit https://www.moma.org/research/circulating-film.

If you would like to reproduce text from a MoMA publication, please email [email protected]. If you would like to publish text from MoMA’s archival materials, please fill out this permission form and send to [email protected].

Feedback

This record is a work in progress. If you have additional information or spotted an error, please send feedback to [email protected].