Posters de cinéma peints du Libéria

Liberian handmade movie posters exhibition

at Lila Brown, 26 March 2014.

The "Liberian handmade painted movie posters exhibition" is displaying posters from American, Chinese and Indian movies that were painted by Liberian artists in the late 90's. This exhibition is a tribute to a specific type of African folk-art that emerged in the 80's and disappeared only a few years ago.

Until the beginning of this century and the in the absence of printed posters, theaters used to order painted canvas displaying their shows. During years and years, Liberian painters produced thousands of posters that were exhibited in front of theaters to advertise about the latest shows. With the arrival of Nollywood along with DVDs and printed posters, the interest for theaters and painted posters disappeared. Most of theaters shut down or started to display soccer games and the painted posters were dumped, lost or damaged.

Thanks to the efforts of a passionate collector, who spent countless days looking for these posters, we are now able to exhibit a sample of this atypical and outstanding collection.