Koi

Marty Neumeier · 1983 · Silkscreen with metallic gold ink

An art poster published under the Davis-Blue imprint at the height of the 1980s framable-poster boom. Two koi are set down in loose, dry brushwork and left to circle each other in the middle of a flat silkscreened gray field, one fish red and white, the other black and gold. The gold markings and the vertical KOI panel are screened in metallic gold ink, so the poster shifts as you walk past it, the pigment going from dull bronze to bright metal. The restraint is the point: no border, no rules, no explanation, just two animals holding an empty page in balance.

For graphic designers, posters are probably the closest they'll get to fine art. By definition, design cannot be fine art. But it can be art.Marty Neumeier

View this poster in The 29 Collection