CORAL GABLES, FL.- Classic Posters of the Belle Époque, an exciting new exhibition at the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami, will be on display from February 5 through April 3, 2005. This is the first public showing of the unique Wine Spectator Collection of original vintage posters by famed artists including Toulouse-Lautrec, Villon, Bonnard, Steinlen, Mucha and Cheret, who is known as “the father of the poster.”

These vibrantly colored lithographs were created as pictorial advertising art with the best done mainly in France during the 1890’s, a period known as the Belle Époque. Displayed on kiosks and walls over 100 years ago, few of the finest examples remain today. The posters by top artists that survive are now considered fine art.

University of Miami alumnus Marvin R. Shanken ’65, the editor and publisher of Wine Spectator magazine, has spent almost three decades assembling this collection. Joined in this pursuit by his wife Hazel, he has until now resisted virtually all museum requests to show posters from the collection, preferring to regard his quest for the finest examples of the art as a personal journey.

When University of Miami President Donna Shalala approached Shanken to request that he share his passion for posters with the public through an exhibition at the Lowe Art Museum, he found he could not refuse. The posters in this exhibit represent many of the best executions of this special art form. All are in mint condition with their dazzling colors looking as fresh as when they were originally printed, a rarity in the poster world.