One section of the exhibition, called "Enduring Images," plays up the persistence of some images like the eagle and the rising sun, recaptured on contemporary signs today.
Following humbly in the wake of the great American critic George Jean Nathan, who once produced a list of the portents of a bad play (eg "When, as the curtain goes up, you hear newsboys shouting Extra!, Extra!"), I append my own list of contemporary signs, whether in new plays or classic revivals, that audiences are in for a rough evening: 1.
It plays out in New York, 1961, and all over the village, cafes are sprouting folk singers, chins are sprouting beards, and Llewyn Davis (Oscar Isaac), at something of a loss after the other half of his double act jumped off the George Washington bridge, is doing his damnedest not to sell out, while stifling his howls as contemporaries sign up all around him.
When Stockhausen and his contemporaries signed their Faustian pact to control nature, the price seems to have been that few people would ever understand what on earth they were on about, myself included.
They now live in a contemporary house in Hollywood Hills, with impressive views of downtown L.A. and the Hollywood sign.
Kruks, Sonia, "Gender and Subjectivity: Simone de Beauvoir and Contemporary Feminism", Signs, 18(1), 89-110, Autumn 1992.
X-Men star James McAvoy proves you're never too famous to ask your well-known contemporaries to sign your shirt - in red pen.
Can Tumblr Preserve Black Contemporary Art? Signs of the Times: A Graphic Designer Is Preserving Urban Typography.
"We combined some of our historic pieces of ballot boxes and voting machines, which are the symbolic symbol of American democracy, along with contemporary rally signs".
