After Words
Eastman Theatre
Movie Magic
POSTER ART: Long before college students turned to mass-produced movie posters to decorate their dorm rooms, the bills for upcoming cinematic features were often designed and hand-painted by artists such as the late Batiste Madalena, whose work was showcased at the Eastman Theatre in the early 1920s. Hired by George Eastman, the Italian-born Madalena created more than 1,400 works over four years, including tempera paintings for the drama Love’s Wilderness (1925) and the comedy Partners Again (1926), which are part of the permanent collection of the Memorial Art Gallery. Other Madalena works are featured in Batiste Madalena: Hand-Painted Film Posters for the Eastman Theatre, 1924–1928, an exhibition on view through April 6 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. The exhibition includes a series of screenings of some of the movies depicted in the posters. Silent film scholar Philip Carli ’03E (PhD), who helped provide dates for many of the posters in the MoMA exhibition, is a piano accompanist and guest lecturer for the screenings.