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Collection Data
- Description
- James McMullan (1934-) is an Irish Canadian illustrator and designer of theatrical posters. His collection compiles posters he created to promote theatrical productions and some special events at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, New York City. The collection also holds paintings, sketches, notes, and photographs.
- Names
- McMullan, James, 1934- (Creator)
- McMullan, James, 1934- (Artist)
- Dates / Origin
- Date Created: 1976 - 2023
- Library locations
- Billy Rose Theatre Division
- Shelf locator: *T-Vim 2022-002
- Topics
- Lincoln Center Theater (New York, N.Y.)
- Artists -- United States
- illustrators -- United States
- Theater -- New York (State) -- New York
- Theatrical posters
- Illustrators
- Genres
- Paintings
- Photographs
- Posters
- Sketches
- Watercolors
- Notes
- Biographical/historical: James McMullan (1934- ) is an Irish Canadian illustrator and designer of theatrical posters. McMullan was born in Qingdao, China, where his grandparents were missionaries for the Anglican Church. McMullan fled with his mother to Canada upon the onset of World War II. They would move three more times, first to India, then Shanghai before emigrating to the United States. During the interim, McMullan's father was killed in a plane crash.
McMullan developed an early interest in art. He trained at several art schools culminating with an enrollment at Pratt Institute, New York in 1955. Prior to Pratt, McMullan enlisted in the United States Army where he drew diagrams that illustrated where to place loudspeakers on Sherman tanks. By the 1960s, McMullan was doing illustration work for book jackets and magazine, including New York Magazine.
In 1976, McMullan was hired by Alexander M. Cohen to create his first theatrical poster design for a performance of The Comedians at The Music Box Theatre in Chicago, Illinois. Cohen hired McMullan for additional work, through which he eventually met Bernard Gersten, the executive director of Lincoln Center. His first poster for Lincoln Center was for The House of Blue Leaves in 1986. McMullan has since designed over ninety posters for Lincoln Center productions and events.
McMullan has been internationally recognized for his work, and in 1991 he won a Drama Desk Special Award. He has also written several books including Leaving China: An Artist Paints His World War II Childhood (2014), The Revealing Illustrations of James McMullan (1988), The Theater Posters of James McMullan (1998), More McMullans: The Lincoln Center Theater Posters 1998-2012 (2012), and Hello World: The Body Speaks in the Drawing Of Men (2022). McMullan's other creative works include a large-scale mural for the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theatre at Lincoln Center, and a number of children's book illustrations in collaboration with his wife, Kate McMullan.
James McMullan has taught life drawing at the School of Visual Arts in New York City for thirty-five years, and continues to teach master art classes.
- Content: The James McMullan poster designs, dated 1976 to 2023, reflects over four decades of poster designs by McMullan, mostly for theatrical productions at Lincoln Center Theatre for the Performing Arts, New York City.
The collection is arranged into four series: Final Artwork; Preliminary Posters and Research Files; Photographs; and Posters.
This collection provides a glimpse into McMullan's creative process from preliminary pencil and watercolor sketches to various iterations of his illustrations. Each work culminates into a final poster that was used for promoting a theatrical production.
This collection holds extensive preparatory work, although the amount of background information varies with each poster design. This preparatory work includes pencil sketches and watercolor sketches at various stages of completion. Supporting materials include photographs of actors modeling for the posters, and occasionally historical photographs of the time-period. This visual evidence offers a glimpse into the decision-making process for the final selection. Some of McMullan's notes indicate that other individuals such as the playwright and director may have had an input about the final design. Every part of the poster design had to work together including the placement and colors of the text.
Highlights of the collection include McMullan's first theatrical poster for The Comedians, and first Lincoln Center poster for The House of Blue Leaves. The collection offers a wide range of posters featuring comedy, drama, and musicals from established playwrights and directors, to new plays debuting at the Lincoln Center Theater. Examples of other posters in the collection with working files include Ah, Wilderness!, Anything Goes, Carousel, King Lear, Mule Bone, The Royale, and Six Degrees of Separation.
- Physical Description
- Extent: 24.83 linear feet (44 boxes, 25 tubes). 9.6 megabytes (13 computer files)
- Type of Resource
- Text
- Still image
- Identifiers
- Other local Identifier: *T-Vim 2022-002
- NYPL catalog ID (B-number): b23453187
- MSS Unit ID: 186266
- Universal Unique Identifier (UUID): 8e63aa60-2dcd-013e-8682-0242ac110003
