Poster Children.(poster art collecting)(Brief Article)

Although the poster dealer Gail Chisholm has been in the business for three decades, you can still find her lurking around Paris on Wednesdays at 4 A.M., making a deal for a placard or two. "It's when they do the trade-over--you know, when they take down the hoardings. Sometimes they'll give you one of the old ones." Of course, the majority of the five thousand or so original posters at the CHISHOLM GALLERY (55 W. 17th St.; 6th floor; 243-8834) never graced metro or kiosk. They came from private collectors, who have been amassing posters since color lithography caused a sensation in the late nineteenth century, and from factories and warehouses, where, believe it or not, overlooked posters still turn up. "They're mostly French; the Italians were wonderfully dismissive of poster collecting. Their attitude was 'Posters? With our art?' " Chisholm says, surrounded by a hundred years' worth of ads for wine and bicycles and travel and trains, which are on display as part of the gallery's current exhibition, "Summer Pastimes." Asked to pick a favorite, Chisholm eventually settles on a turn-of-the-century advertisement for Absinthe Superieure ($6,000) featuring a portly peasant settling down for a sip and a puff. (His pipe smoke spells out "C'est ma sante.") Pressed further, she points out a nineteen-fifties poster designed by David Kline for T.W.A. that depicts cat's-eye sunglasses floating over a highly abstract rendering of Collins Avenue in Miami Beach ($850).

At the former carriage house that is home to the CARRANDI GALLERY (138 W. 18th St.; 242-0710), the specialties are circus, magic, and Wild West posters. ("My husband was interested in magic," Susan Carrandi sighs, thinking ...