Legendary Movie Poster Artist John Alvin's Archive Seeks a Buyer

Legendary Movie Poster Artist John Alvin's Archive Seeks a Buyer

Briefly

"Even if the name doesn't immediately ring a bell, his art surely will. In posters for more than 135 films, he captured some of cinema's most defining images: E.T.'s glowing fingertip, The Lion King 's majestic sunrise, and 's blazing space-scape. His were deeply evocative works that distilled and conveyed the mood and magic of the movies. "I try to do art that makes the promise," he's , "'if you see this, you will feel this way.'""

"When Alvin died in 2008, he left behind a vast archive of original movie posters, as well as sketches, illustrations, and other material that bear out his meticulous creative process. It's a trove that spans the 1970s through '90s, and numbers more than 1,000 pieces. Now, after stewarding the collection for years, the artist's widow and long-time collaborator Andrea Alvin is ready to part with it."

""The Alvin estate is currently seeking a buyer-whether an individual or an institution-who will acquire the entire collection, rather than breaking it up into pieces. Keeping the archive intact might be challenging, but key to preserving Alvin's legacy as a whole, the collection's manager Leslie Combemale told me. In her words, it maintains "a story from the beginning to the end." "There are so many generations who connect with the stories that John worked on and, by extension, the art representing it," she said over a video call. "This is the whole story-from the first concept to the key art-that people had on their walls when they were growing up.""