David Klein

David Klein (1918–2005) Is an American artist, who after serving in the army during the Second World War, moved to New York, where he would live for the next 60 years.  In 1947, Klein worked as an art director at Clifford Strohl Associates, a theatrical advertising agency. Before long, Klein became the illustrator of choice for many of Broadway’s best-known shows of the period.  Klein’s poster/window cards from this period include: Death of a Salesman, Brigadoon, Most Happy Fella, The Music Man, and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. This body of work remains one of the enduring hallmarks of this golden age of Broadway.

David Klein is best known, however, for his influential work in the field of travel advertising. During the 1950s and 1960s, Klein designed and illustrated dozens of posters for Howard Hughes’ Trans World Airlines (TWA).

Klein’s use of bright colors depicting famous landmarks in an abstract style defined the state of poster art of the period. In 1957 a TWA poster of New York City became part of the permanent collection of the MoMA (Museum of Modern Art) in New York.  These works are much imitated and to this day define the excitement and enthusiasm of the early years of post-war air travel.  They defined the Jet Set style and have become iconic.