This poster marks a key event in Australian history - the sesquicentennary celebrations in 1938 which marked 150 years since European settlement of a land that had originally been inhabited by Aboriginal Australians. The poster was designed by the well known British poster artist Tom Purvis in the Soviet social realist style that became popular during the 1930s for propaganda art.

The poster was issued on behalf of Australia's 150th Anniversary Council by the Australian National Travel Association (ANTA) for distribution in its offices in London, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Shanghai, Wellington, Toronto, Paris, Batavia, Cairo and Melbourne, where ANTA had its Head Office. These locations are identified in the text of the poster.

Tom Purvis was one of the first artists to made a Royal Designer for Industry in Britain in 1936-37, followed by Milner Gray in 1938, A B Read in 1940, and Australian designer Gordon Andrews in the 1950s. Purvis's graphic style is characterised by the broad massing of strong colour and the elimination of detail. He formed figures solely from masses of colour with outline as illustrated in this poster.
The 1938 British Empire Games were held in conjunction with Australia's 150th Anniversary celebrations and a variety of posters were also produced for this event. These and the 150th anniversary posters aimed to present a nation that no longer clinged to its rural utopia image, but promoting instead a new image of sun, cities and sophistication, visually aided by the completion of the construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge in 1932. Both the bridge and strong sun tanned European bodies, are repeated used during this period as visual icons for the new nation.

This poster was probably printed in the UK. The Australian National Library also has a copy of this poster which it lent to 'Trading Places: Australian Travel Posters 1909-1990' held at the Monash University Gallery. Tom Purvis posters were exhibited in the National Railway Museum of York's poster exhibition of 1989.

Designed by Tom Purvis, presumably in Britain (no printer acknowledged on the poster).

[Britain]

Issued in 1935 on behalf of Australia's 150th Anniversary Council by the Australian National Travel Association, London, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Shanghai, Wellington, Toronto, Paris, Batavia, Cairo and Melbourne (Head Office). (Note: printed on poster).
Purchased at the 5th International Works on Paper Print Fair, Sydney, 1995.

Poster, 'Australia's 150th Anniversary Celebrations', colour photo-lithograph, paper, designed by Tom Purvis, maker unknown, Britain, 1937-1938

Poster with title, 'Australia's 150th Anniversary Celebrations/Sydney - Summer Season - Jan to April 1938' printed in red at top of the poster above a monumental male figure with raised hand beckoning with his index finger to the viewer, the large male head without outline is seen above a view of Sydney Harbour with Harbour Bridge and city view presumably in the evening as the car lights can be seen on the bridge and the building lights on the foreshores of the harbour suggesting a thriving urban metropolis.

Designed: Purvis, Tom;

Made: 1937 - 1938

Printed above image u.c. "AUSTRALIA'S / 150TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATIONS / SYDNEY - SUMMER SEASONS - JAN. TO APRIL 1938"
signed on plate c.l. "Tom PURVIS"
printed from plate across image base "Issued on behalf of Australia's 150th Anniversary Council by the Australian NATIONAL TRAVEL ASSOCIATION, / London, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Shanghai, Wellington, Toronto, Paris, Batavia, Cairo and Melbourne (Head Office)"

95/269/1

636 mm