Mulie Deco

There are posters that announce an exhibition and posters that become the exhibition. This 1976 lithograph by David Lance Goines, created to promote his retrospective at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco, is definitively the second kind. Serene, precise, and unmistakably his own, it is a complete statement of an artistic vision rendered in a single image.

The central figure is a woman rendered in Goines's characteristic style, her face a study in calm, economical line. A high, elongated neck, wide-set pale eyes and a single small V mark at the base of the throat. The face is beautiful in the way that masks and icons are beautiful, archetypal rather than individual, composed rather than expressive. Her dark hair is drawn back tightly and pearl drop earrings hang from her ears, and at her throat a bold checkerboard choker in teal and cream grounds the composition with a note of geometric precision that echoes the decorative elements surrounding her.Those decorative elements are drawn from the Viennese Secession vocabulary that Goines loved throughout his career.

A horizontal band of teal and cream checks runs behind the figure's head. Groups of four teal squares, arranged in a two-by-two grid, punctuate each corner of the composition and the lower middle register with the kind of repeating geometric accent that Josef Hoffmann made his signature. A row of rounded teal squares runs across the very base of the poster like a decorative border on a Klimt frame. Behind the figure's head, a large pale disc, part halo, part full moon, part abstracted sun, glows with warm sandy beige.

The typography at the base of the poster is entirely Goines's own design, the large GOINES lettering drawn in teal with a characteristic rounded Art Nouveau weight, the exhibition details below in a fine serifed letterform of his own devising. Every element of this poster, from the figure to the typography to the decorative accents, was drawn, composed, and printed by the same hand. That total authorship is part of what makes Goines's work so compelling and so enduringly collectible.

Reproduced as a Huecraft archival fine art print on premium heavyweight paper with fade-resistant inks, every line, tonal gradation, and typographic detail is preserved with complete fidelity to the original 1976 lithograph.

Hang it in a living room where its calm authority and graphic refinement bring an immediate sense of cultural intelligence to the wall. At a workstation or home studio it is the kind of piece that inspires by example, a reminder of what total commitment to a craft can produce. In a bedroom the soft palette of cream, teal, and blush sits with a quietness that suits the space perfectly. It pairs beautifully with warm white walls, natural timber, and any interior that appreciates the history of graphic art and the pleasures of a perfectly resolved composition.