Subway poster for School of Visual Arts designed by Gail Anderson: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

This is a subway poster for the School of Visual Arts designed by Gail Anderson and illustrated by Terry Allen, featuring a quote from President Barack Obama on the bottom half and an abstract lion’s face on the upper half. The lion’s face consists of a two-tone yellow circle with geometric shapes for a nose, large black circle for a mouth and small red circles for eyes. Its whiskers are two sets of parallel yellow lines. Red, white, and blue pencils radiate outwards from the face, creating the appearance of a mane. The bottom half has a quote in white text from President Obama’s Inaugural Address. The text reads “In Reaffirming the / Greatness / Of Our Nation / We Understand That / Greatness is Never A Given / It Must Be Earned. / President Barack Hussein Obama / Inaugural Address – January 20, 2009.” In the bottom right-hand corner is a small red flower next to white text that reads “School of VISUAL ARTS / SVA.EDU.” The poster has a black background. Below this text is copyright information.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: 2009
• Designed by: Gail Anderson, American, born 1962
• Illustrated by: Terry Allen, American
• Subject of: President Barack Obama, American, born 1961
• Subject of: School of Visual Arts, American, founded 1947
• Type: posters
• Medium: ink on paper (fiber product)
• Dimensions: H x W: 45 7/8 × 30 in. (116.5 × 76.2 cm)
• Place depicted: New York City, New York, United States, North and Central America
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Activism
• Topic: Art
• Topic: Design
• Topic: Education
• Topic: Graphic design
• Object number: 2020.11.31
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Gail Anderson
• Data Source: National Museum of African American History and Culture

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of African American History and Culture through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed. The underlying object's rights statement is: © School of Visual Arts Permission required for use. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.