A group of posters that could have adorned Getty Square's store windows a century ago will go on display Sunday at a downtown gallery.

"Literary Posters from the 1890's" is a 20-piece exhibition at the Hudson River Gallery & Conservators.

Magazine and book publishers used the posters to promote their titles, and they became popular as keepsakes with the public at a time when there was not much mass-produced art for people of modest means.

"Merchants didn't like them because they obstructed the views of the merchandise," said Helmut E. Zitzwitz, 74, who with his wife, Barbara, owns the gallery at 86 Main St. "So they took them down and gave them to favored customers."

Although the publishing industry has changed considerably in the past century, there are still magazine titles that the public will recognize, such as The Atlantic and Harpers. Publishers hired young artists to create the posters and some of these artists became prominent later in life, including James Montgomery Flagg, who is most famous for his "I Want You" poster of a pointing Uncle Sam.

The exhibition, on display until Sept. 7, features one Flagg poster from 1895 advertising that August's issue of The Atlantic magazine.

The Zitzwitzes borrowed the movie posters from the collection of the New York-based Salmagundi Art Club, an artists' association founded in 1871.

Many of the posters depict women in the voluminous dress styles of the 1890s, a prosperous time in the United States and Europe. The posters are rare relics of early American consumer culture, the Zitzwitzes explained, because they were meant to be used and discarded, not preserved as art.

Barbara Zitzwitz said she and her husband were interested in mounting the exhibition because the vintage posters give insight into famous artists' creative evolution.

"This was the beginning of their careers, so it was interesting for us," she said.

Before moving to Yonkers in October, the Bronx couple formerly operated galleries in Dobbs Ferry and in the Riverdale section of the Bronx. They have featured artists such as Sigmund Abeles and Kim Kwang Woo.

In addition to the posters, the gallery will also exhibit an original colored charcoal by Edwin H. Blashfield, who like many of the poster artists was a member of the Salmagundi Art Club.

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