Alumnus Tony Singer owns VintageAutoPosters.com. He recently endowed the first professorship in painting at the University of Denver.
Everett Anton “Tony” Singer (BA ’70) doesn’t consider his job work. Retired co-owner of the print business Four Seasons Litho Inc., Singer is the creator of VintageAutoPosters.com.
“My company combines the three things I love: aesthetics, printing and cars,” he says. “I channeled my creative juices into my printing business and then into automotive vintage posters. It was my time as a painting student at DU that opened my eyes to being able to express my aesthetic vision in many different entrepreneurial paths.”
In June, Singer made a gift to the University of Denver’s School of Art and Art History to provide opportunities for art students to have similar revelatory experiences. The Everett Anton Singer Endowed Professorship in Painting is the first endowed faculty position for the School of Art and Art History.
“We are all deeply touched by Tony’s generosity and trust,” says Anne McCall, dean of the Divisions of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. “This professorship will enable us to strengthen our painting program by creating a fertile academic environment in which we can attract top-notch faculty who will help students foster their passion for art.”
Singer’s gift will be used to increase the number of full-time faculty in painting. The endowment will fund faculty salaries and research related to painting. The University, currently progressing in a campaign called ASCEND, has matched Singer’s donation; one of the campaign’s top priorities is to support the people who make up the DU community—students, faculty and coaches.
“It was clear to me that DU has fantastic physical spaces for students in the art program to explore their art,” Singer says. “It seemed to me that what the School of Art and Art History needed was more support of its people. I wanted to fund the faculty within the program and enable the school to attract well-known, motivating teachers to guide art students.”
Singer credits his time at DU and his art professors for helping him discover new avenues for artistic expressions, including his interest in graphic arts, photography and interior design.
“I first became intrigued with cars when I’d drive to the mountains from DU,” Singer says. According to Singer, the only cars that performed well in the mountains were Corvettes and Porsches. He visited his first Porsche dealership while he was a student, and the salesman gave him a Porsche poster that he hung in his residence hall room. Singer has been collecting posters ever since. Today, his company, VintageAutoPosters.com, internationally buys and sells automobile posters and has one of the largest volumes of this genre of vintage posters in the world.
Prior to his work as a vintage poster dealer, Singer worked for his family’s small print business in New York. He took the position in 1972, and under his leadership, Four Seasons Litho grew into one of the best-known multicolor printers in the New York area. The company pioneered the creation and implementation of the five-color print process.
Singer’s work as an entrepreneurial printer and vintage poster collector precluded him from full-time pursuit of his first artistic passion: painting.
“I don’t consider what I do work, because I love what I do. But for decades I didn’t have time to paint,” Singer says. Recently, however, he has been devoting more time to painting at his home studio in California. He keeps his collection there and is making a donation of a painting he created while at DU to his alma mater.
“Painting is my purest form of creativity. I think there are motivated students for whom art can be a means of expression, if they are given the opportunity,” Singer says. “I hope my donation to endow a professorship in painting motivates gifted art professors to come to DU to guide our art students.”