David Klein

A TWA Los Angeles travel poster, circa 1958, with artwork by David Klein.

• David Klein (American, 1918-2005).
• Linen backed.
• This work is presented unframed.

Searchlights, palm trees, mountains and glowing night-time color create a seriously glamorous vision of LA. With the Hollywood Bowl lit beneath a starry sky and klieg lights cutting the darkness into bold modernist shapes, it sells Southern California at its most cinematic.

The aircraft shown is a Lockheed L-49 Constellation, one of the great icons of post-war air travel and among the first pressurized airliners adapted for wide commercial use.

In the 1950s, TWA turned travel into fantasy: sleek, modern, exciting and full of possibility. Los Angeles was the perfect subject, with its film-world glamour, sunshine and effortless cool.

David Klein’s TWA posters are mid-century design classics, loved for their punchy color, clean forms and brilliant sense of place.