Chelsea Girls (flyposter first run)

One of the rarest posers in the world this is part art artefact and part movie poster. Alan Aldridge's iconic design for Andy Warhol's Chelsea Girls is possibly the most sought after art movie poster image of the late 60's, as it combines Warhol with swinging London. The Chelsea in Warhol's film may have been in Manhattan but this design is totally British. The poster was originally designed for the Arts Laboratory screening in London in 1968 and a small number were printed for flyposting. This led to police charges of indecency and it was promptly withdrawn. Despite this, it won the 1969 D&AD (Directors and Art Directors) silver award for most outstanding art poster of 1968. As it was a fly poster, illegally posted up in the local area only, only a handful of these are believed to have survived - one was bought for the Tate museum by British Heritage. It took till 1970 for Motif to print the full run, which is how most people know them, but this is one of the very few surviving original flyposting posters. It has been linen backed and presents extremely well with some overall browning with age.