MasterPeaces High Art for Higher Purpose
Center for the Study of Political Graphics www.politicalgraphics.org
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I. Pietas for Peace
Pieta Michelangelo St. Peter’s Basilica Marble, 1499 Rome, Italy
War Is Good Business Lambert Studios, Inc. Offset, 1969 United States 18362
This icon of a mother’s grief over her slain son was transformed into a poignant protest against the Viet Nam War. The added text parodies advertising slogans, war profiteering, and the military-industrial complex in which generals and politicians sit on corporate boards. When it became evident that the war was being lost and the anti-war movement was gaining popular momentum, Wall Street and the corporate media eventually decided the investment of lives and resources was counterproductive. Over 58,000 U.S. soldiers and several million Vietnamese were killed.
Religious institutions were divided, with New York’s Cardinal Spellman serving as a cheerleader for the war, while other clergy, including Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Berrigan brothers, vigorously protested the war.
Pieta John Emerson No RNC Poster Project Offset, 2004 New York, New York 29416 The spiked crown turns the Virgin Mary into the Statue of Liberty, holding the corpse of a soldier draped in the U.S. flag. This poster was part of the NO RNC Poster Project, organized by artists to protest the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York City, and the Iraq and Afghanistan wars initiated by President George W. Bush. Over 50,000 posters in dozens of designs were distributed by the NO RNC Poster Project.
Never Again Lester Doré Digital Print, 2009 Madison, Wisconsin 29993 Combining Christian and Islamic iconography, the skeletal figures evoke Michelangelo’s or virtually any Pieta. The chador-draped Virgin sits amidst a rubble-strewn landscape destroyed by war. The oil wells signify Iraq. “Never Again” was a slogan of the Jewish Defense League, referring to the Holocaust. Its use here in Arabic denounces a new genocide in the Middle East.
Guernica Revisited
Guernica Pablo Picasso Oil on canvas, 1937 Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid Picasso painted Guernica, arguably the most powerful and best known anti-war artwork of the 20th century, to protest one of the most horrific events of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939)— the bombing of the Basque town of Guernica in April 1937. For more than three hours, Nazi aircraft carpet bombed the town. One hundred thousand pounds of high-explosive and incendiary bombs were dumped a village with a population of 5,000, killing or wounding up to 2000 civilians and destroying 70% of the town. Although Guernica was of no strategic value, it gave the Germans an opportunity to try out new equipment and tactics, while supporting Spanish nationalist efforts to overthrow the democratically elected government of Spain. More than seven decades later, Guernica, continues to resonate its anti-war statement from Viet Nam to Iraq.
Stop The War In Vietnam Now! Pablo Picasso Offset, circa 1970 United States 24232
Neutronenbombe NEIN Neutron Bomb NO Artist Unknown Offset, 1981 Germany 7688 Picasso’s Guernica is intact, while people-shaped voids refer to the audience that would no longer be there after the detonation of a weapon that destroys life but saves property and art. The Neutron Bomb, referred to as an enhanced radiation weapon, was also called the capitalist bomb because, unlike other nuclear bombs, it would destroy people but not buildings. It was conceived in 1958 at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, which was founded, managed and operated by the University of California, Berkeley from 1953-2007. In 1978, President Jimmy Carter planned to deploy neutron warheads in Europe, but delayed production due to domestic and international protests. President Ronald Reagan started production in 1981, the date of the poster. Although France had tested a Neutron Bomb in 1980, in French Polynesia, the U.S. intent to deploy them in Europe, provoked this poster.
Two Years of War and Occupation Not In Our Name Camille Offset, 2005 United States 24081 With the logos of assorted corporations covering the equipment, this poster emphasizes the corporate profiteering in the ongoing Iraq War. The Baghdad Museum, shown on the left, contained priceless relics from ancient Mesopotamia before it was looted in 2003 at the beginning of the Iraq War. In the months preceding the war, international antiquities experts asked The Pentagon and British government to ensure the museum's safety from both combat and looting. Troops guarded the oil fields, but the museum was left unguarded. As of February 2009, about half of its looted contents were still missing and the museum remains closed.
Thoroughly Modern Mona’s (& More)
Portrait of Cecilia Gallerani (Lady with an Ermine) Leonardo da Vinci Oil on wood panel, 1489 Czartoryski Museum, Krakow, Poland
War is Always in Fashion Michele Castagnetti Digital Print, 2009 Venice, California 29194
Michele Castagnetti’s title has a double meaning. His variation of the Leonardo portrait not only points to society’s addiction to war, but the cynicism of using military garb and camouflage motifs as a contemporary fashion statement—even in children’s clothing. 0
Mona Lisa Leonardo da Vinci Oil Painting, 1503 Louvre, Paris
Manifestaci贸n C茅sar Bobis Offset, circa 1983 Spain 5283
Let Women Decide The Right to Abortion The repeated head of the Mona Lisa, whose ubiquity casts her as Everywoman, suggests the sheer numbers of women who are being called to the demonstration supporting the right to abortion. It simultaneously suggests the widespread need for safe and legal access to abortion.
Niemand ist Vollkommen Klaus Staeck Steidl Gรถttingen Offset, 1981 Heidelberg, Germany 11634 No One is Perfect The Mona Lisa, idealized and universal symbol of womanhood, is shown in a wheelchair to promote the rights of the disabled.
Last Suppers
The Last Supper Leonardo da Vinci Fresco, 1490s Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan
Some Living American Women Artists Mary Beth Edelson Offset, 1972 United States 15858 Portraits of American women artists replace the heads of Leonardo’s figures. Portraits of more women artists [living at the time] frame the painting. Designed in the midst of the second wave feminist movement (1970s), the poster protests the inequality of opportunity and of recognition for women artists. Despite the heightened awareness of the problem, this discrimination persists, as evidenced by the Guerrilla Girls poster (Do Women Have to Be Naked to Get into the Met?) shown elsewhere in this exhibition.
The Last Supper of Chicano Heroes JosÊ Antonio Burciaga Ed Souza Offset, 1989 California 2241 This poster reproduces a detail from a mural entitled The History of Maize, located in the Chicanothemed Casa Zapata dormitory at Stanford University. The heroes shown here were selected through a poll the artist conducted among students, faculty, and staff. The Virgen de Guadelupe, patron of the Americas and the spiritual hero of Mexican and Chicano culture, did not place first but she was positioned above out of respect. Leading the poll was Che Guevara, in the position of Christ. The dedication on the tablecloth from one student's hero list: "...and to all those who died, scrubbed floors, wept and fought for us.� reinforces the portraits of some food service workers from Stanford in the back row. For a complete list of the people represented, visit: http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~josecuel/chicanismo.htm
The Last Supper Albrecht D端rer Woodcut, 1523 Germany
Unidad de la Izquierda Unity of the Left El Machete Offset, 1980 Mexico 28411 El Machete, a Communist Party journal from Mexico, made a poster out of their June 1980 cover titled Unity of the Left. The cover closely follows Albrecht Dßrer’s design (1523), changing only the heads. Karl Marx substitutes for Jesus, cradling Rosa Luxemburg in his arms. To the left, Lenin replaces St. Peter, the principal apostle traditionally represented as bald. Che Guevara is to the right. Other figures include Friedrich Engels, Joseph Stalin, Leon Trotsky, and Mao Tze-Tung. The fractiousness, disunity, and widespread accusations of betrayal and heresy of the left parallels the situation of Judas and the Early Christians.
Michelangelo Buonarroti 1475-1564
Creation of Adam Michelangelo Fresco, 1511 Sistine Chapel, Rome
Take Care Associação Brasileira Interdisciplinar de AIDS Offset, 2002 Brazil 15001 Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam detail from the Sistine Chapel Ceiling, 1511, is one of the most widely reproduced, adapted and popularized fine art images. This detail of Michelangelo's "Sistine Chapel ceiling, showing "The Creation of Adam," has additional layer of irony, as it shows God promoting safe sex, directly challenging the Catholic Church’s continued opposition to the use of condoms.
And God Created Woman in Her Own Image Ann Grifalconi Greyfalcon House Offset, 1970 New York, New York 8308 Ann Grifalconi not only changes Adam and God into females, but makes God Herself into a black woman with an “Afro� hairdo, as popularized by Angela Davis and the Black Panther Party in the 1960s and 1970s.
Event for Peace Peace Committee of Health Professionals Offset, 1978 Athens, Greece 28525
Ein St端ck vom Paradies A Piece from Paradise Lex Drewinski Silkscreen, 1993 Berlin, Germany 13952 Drewinski, reducing the hands of Adam and God to silhouettes, shows Adam defiantly giving the finger to his would-be creator.
David Michelangelo Marble, 1501-1504 Gallery of the Art of Drawing, Florence
Jesse Helms Says: Censored! Artist Unknown Silkscreen, 1989 Los Angeles, California 3126
Jesse Alexander Helms, Jr. (1921– 2008), a five-term Republican Senator from North Carolina, was an outspoken conservative who at various times opposed civil rights, including school integration, feminism, gay and lesbian rights, affirmative action and abortion. In 1989, several publicly funded exhibitions drew conservative ire, including Andre Serrano’s Piss Christ—a photograph of the crucified Christ submerged in the artist's urine, and an exhibition of Robert Mapplethorpe’s homoerotic photographs on display just a short walk from the Capitol.
In response, Helms spearheaded a movement attacking the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). This resulted in drastic cuts in federal funding for the arts, targeting controversial or irreverent projects, especially if involving sex or religion. This poster uses one of the most famous male nudes in the world to imply that Helms would have had it censored.
Per le Cittรก Italiane Tira una Brutta Aria [For the Italian Cities Throw Bad Air] Sinistra Ecologista; Democratici di Sinistra; Sinistra Giovanile Offset, 2004 Rome, Italy 31415
Francisco Goya 1746-1828
Saturn Devouring One of His Sons Francisco Goya Oil on mural transferred to canvas, 1819-1823 Museo del Prado, Madrid
Amerika Is Devouring Its Children Jay Belloli Silkscreen, 1970 Berkeley, California 3179
In April 1970, when the U.S. invaded Cambodia, a neutral country during the Viet Nam War, college campuses throughout the US erupted in protest, and one-third of them shut down. At Kent State University in Ohio, four students were killed by national guardsmen deployed to repress the protests. Two days later, two students were killed at Jackson State College in Mississippi.
Outraged by the escalating violence abroad and at home, students at the University of California, Berkeley walked out of their classes. They silkscreened over 100 designs such as this onto reams of used computer paper, transforming the Goya into an anti Viet Nam War statement. The choice of this myth is appropriate as governments, whether of nations or universities, often see themselves as father figures, in this case, sending their children to kill and be killed.
Pleasevote.com Richard Serra Pleasevote.com Digital Print of 2004 offset original New York, New York 29992 Another anti-war adaptation of Goya’s work, but now against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Here, President George W. Bush’s head replaces that of Saturn. When The Nation magazine reproduced Serra’s design on the back cover of its July 5, 2004 issue, many readers, failing to recognize the Goya original, wrote scathing letters to the editor, complaining that gory image went too far.
Eugene Delacroix 1798-1863
Liberty Leading the People Eugene Delacroix Oil on canvas, 1830 Louvre, Paris Eugene Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People was one of the most famous and radical paintings of its time. It celebrates the Revolution of July 28, 1830, when the people of Paris once again dethroned the king. Liberty shows the hope shared by the many classes who felt oppressed under the previous regime. This hope was short-lived, as was the public display of the painting, which soon was considered too revolutionary to remain on view. It was rarely shown until it entered the Louvre in 1874.
Women of the World Unite! Jurgen Grefe Jane Carson Offset, 1989 Bemidji, Minnesota 12101 Using the central figure of Delacroix’s Liberty leading the People. The text alters the famous line from Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto of 1848, “ Workers of the World
1789 France - 1989 Ireland: The Struggle Continues Robert Ballagh Offset, 1989 Ireland 6867 Northern Ireland has been the scene of sectarian conflict between its Roman Catholic and Protestant populations for generations. The struggle that raged from the 1970s through the 1990s, included bombings, assassinations and street violence, and resulted in up to 2,000 deaths. On the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution, Dublin artist Robert Ballagh’s poster shows Liberty holding the flag of the Republic of Ireland—tricolor like the French flag, only substituting green for blue and orange for red. On the young boy’s shoulder bag Ballagh has added the Easter Lily insignia used by Irish republicans to commemorate martyrs in the struggle against British rule
Resistencia/Resistance Asamblea de Artistas Revolucionarios de Oaxaca (ASAR-O); Vil Stencil, 2006 Oaxaca, Mexico 26704 In May 2006, 70,000 teachers went on strike in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca, demanding better pay, as well as measures to help poorer pupils, including breakfasts for schoolchildren, scholarships, uniforms, shoes, medical services and textbooks. The teachers also demanded the resignation of Governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, who became governor of Oaxaca in 2004, amid charges of electoral fraud; corruption and political repression have continued throughout his tenure. When tens of thousands of protesters took over the city central, the government responded with tear gas and violence.
A month later, the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO) formed as an umbrella group for 365 grassroots organizations including unions, indigenous, peasant, and women’s groups. ASAR-O (Asamblea de Artistas Revolucionarios/Oaxacan Assembly of Revolutionary Artists) formed in October 2006, in response to a call by APPO for every discipline to organize themselves. Since the conflict began, APPO and ASAR-O have created stencils, woodcuts, linocuts and spray painted graffiti calling for the resignation of the Governor Ruiz, for indigenous rights, women’s rights, against police abuse, etc. This ASAR-O poster used only the youth from Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People (1830), replacing his two pistols with a raised fist and a slingshot, typical of the Oaxacan protest, where the guns were used by the government forces, not the people. Not having a single figure leading, as in the Delacroix, is also important here as the Oaxacan movement was very horizontal, not vertical or "top down."
Edvard Munch 1863-1944
Scream Edvard Munch Oil, tempera, and pastel on cardboard, 1893 National Gallery, Oslo
Evolve or Dissolve "O" Offset, 1991 Santa Monica, California 2956
WAL-MART Northland Poster Collective Offset, 2006 Minneapolis, Minnesota 29072
Munch’s symbolic scream may have been a response to frightening blood red sunsets seen around the world following the apocalyptic volcanic explosion of Krakatoa, thousands of miles away. Other interpretations refer to a nearby Oslo slaughterhouse and insane asylum. However this may be, this painting continues to express primal fear and alienation. The power of the Munch is tapped by the three posters against different targets: the corporate behemoth Walmart, known for its exploitation of workers, the first Iraq War with its burning oil wells, and the Grand Jury.
End the Inquisition Stop the Grand Jury Grand Jury Defense Office San Francisco Community Press Digital Print of 1972 offset original San Francisco, California 28998 Grand juries were often used in the 1960s and 1970s as a way for the prosecutor to engage in political intelligence gathering and to obtain indictments by presenting evidence in a closed (non-public) forum. In that forum, the prosecutor could compel witnesses to testify by granting "use immunity" to them against their will. Failure to testify could result in imprisonment, without charge, during the term of the grand jury. The grand jury was viewed as a "rubber stamp" of the prosecution.
The blatant use of grand juries for harassment of political activists and for intelligence gathering reached its height under the Nixon Justice Department. Between 1970-1973, over 100 grand juries were convened in 84 cities, subpoenaing over 1,000 activists. Activists who opposed the Viet Nam War, including students, Viet Nam veterans, the Catholic left, and the academic community as well as activists in the women's and black nationalist movements were special targets of grand juries. In response, the National Lawyers Guild, a progressive national legal organization, created a Grand Jury Task Force to coordinate legal strategies to combat the political grand jury, and civil rights, church, and labor groups established the National Coalition to End Grand Jury Abuse. Later the Grand Jury Project was formed in New York, which published a newspaper called Quash and advocated resistance to grand jury subpoenas, and offices were established in some cities, including San Francisco, to provide legal assistance to people receiving grand jury subpoenas.
Katsushika Hokusai 1760-1849
The Great Wave off Kanagawa Katsushika Hokusai Woodblock print, 1832 Metropolitan Museum of Art
Stop Global Warming Peggy White Ultrachrome print, 2009 Kansas City, Missouri 29188 Hokusai’s Wave, one of the best known Japanese art works in the world, has been used in all three posters to denounce pollution of the air, land, and seas, and relate this to global warming, flooding and other ecological disasters. A striking difference between the original and all three adaptations is the removal of Mt. Fuji in the background and boats threatened by the huge wave. In the Hokusai, nature is the primary power, its threat enhanced by the claw-like tips of the wave; in the adaptations, nature is rendered even more threatening by human interference.
Unnatural Resources Emek Golan Silkscreen, 2003 Los Angeles, California 27833
Environmental Justice Ricardo Levins Morales Northland Poster Collective Offset, 2006 Minneapolis, Minnesota 28980
Ecology
The Thinker Auguste Rodin Bronze and marble, 1902 MusĂŠe Rodin, Paris
The Thinker...Too Late the Doer Alan A. Tratner Design Vectors, Inc. Offset, 1972 United States 2214 Rodin’s The Thinker is now death caused by pollution, starvation and war, and the poster demands that we act before it is too late.
The Luncheon on the Grass Edouard Manet Oil on canvas, 1863 Musée d’Orsay, Paris
Zurück zur Natur Back to Nature Klaus Staeck Offset, 1985 Heidelberg, Germany 11643 Widely considered a key moment in the birth of modernist painting, Manet’s The Luncheon on the Grass was refused by the official Paris Salon and exhibited in the alternative “Salon of the Refused” instead. Contemporaries were shocked by the “unnatural” juxtaposition of a nude female with clothed men, despite the obvious reference to a famous Giorgione painting in the Louvre. Le Concert Champêtre which also contrasts female nudity with men in clothes. Manet’s work thus functions as an intentional appropriation to make a provocative social point, as do the works in this exhibition. Staeck’s photomontage condemns consumerism and pollution by adding conspicuous consumer objects into the pristine landscape: a still life of Coca-Cola cans replaces Manet’s clothing and food, a contemporary food cooler, and a huge shiny Mercedes seemingly embraced by the bather.
The Birth of Venus Sandro Botticelli Tempera on canvas, 1486 Uffizi, Florence
Flora? N. Zhuravlyeva Offset, 1990 Moscow, Soviet Union 8076
This flat outlined rendition of Botticelli’s famous Venus moves her from the traditional scallop shell, symbol of fertility, and onto a tree stump, a sterile remainder of a clear cut forest. This Soviet Venus, drained of color and substance, is emblematic of the lifeless landscape. The only green in the poster is a heart-shaped leaf Venus is holding over her own heart.
Femme et Chien Devant La Lune (Woman and Dog Before the Moon) Joan Mir贸 Oil on canvas, 1936 Museum of Modern Art
Genetic Consequences Philip Gresham Ultrachrome print, 2009 Kansas City, Missouri 29192 Joan Miró used the pure and brilliant colors of Fauvism, influences from folkloric Catalan art, and the distortions of Cubism to transform an ordinary topic into a surrealist vision. Gresham’s poster takes Miró’s fantasy out of the original context by mimicking his color and style in the lettering, and uses the surrealist distortion to exemplify the dangers of genetic modification.
Anti-Nuclear
Drowning Girl and others of this style Roy Lichtenstein Oil on canvas, 1963 Museum of Modern Art
Nuclear War?! There Goes My Career! Mark Vallen Art for a Change Shock Battalion Silkscreen, 1982 Los Angeles, California 9526 Lichtenstein’s Pop Art combines the triviality of pulp romance with its stereotypical rhetoric, and the patent artifice of the Ben-day dots and dialogue bubble, characteristic of the cheap color reproduction technology of comic books. Vallen combines public fears of a nuclear war with a critique of those too self-centered to recognize their responsibility for the state of the world.
Marilyn Monroe Andy Warhol Silkscreen ink on synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 1967 Museum of Modern Art
If I Had Only Known Artist Unknown Offset, date unknown Place Unknown 26115
This poster uses Warhol’s signature multi-color and multi-image technique to give a tongue-in-cheek view of the famous physicist Albert Einstein. Warhol did produce a single silkscreen portrait of Einstein (1980), not used here. A single photo of Einstein is repeated eight times. In the ninth image he sticks out his tongue, a widely disseminated photo normally seen as showing Einstein’s sense of humor. In the context of his quotation, however, he appears to be disclaiming his scientific legacy. He made statement about being a locksmith upon learning of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.
Zaporozhian Cossacks of Ukraine Writing a Letter to the Turkish Sultan Oil Painting, 1880-91 State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg
Untitled E. Morozovskeoi; O. Lekomtyev; O. Staaikov; Green World Offset, 1990 Kiev, Ukraine 17502 Ilya Repin, (1844-1930) was a leading Russian painter and sculptor from the Ukraine, whose realistic style and nationalistic themes were used as models for Socialist Realism in the Soviet Union. Repin’s painting, familiar to every Russian child, is based upon a 16th century incident, when the Ukrainian Cossack chiefs wrote a letter rejecting the Turkish Sultan’s demand that they submit to him. The Cossacks’ letter was filled with dirty curses, wrapped around a pig's ear, and sent to the Sultan. In the 1990 adaptation, Ukrainian artists place skull-like gas masks over the Cossack faces, covering up their raucous laughter in the original, and turn mockery of a foreign power into an accusation against their own government regarding the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
The 1986 Chernobyl meltdown in the Ukraine is considered to be the worst nuclear accident in history. Yet the Soviet government, led by Mikhail Gorbachev, assured the population that they were not in danger and encouraged life as usual, thus exposing millions to extremely high levels of radiation. Contamination was recorded around the world, and continues to cause extremely high levels of cancer in the Ukraine, Belarus and Russia.
Christina’s World Andrew Wyeth Tempera on panel, 1948 Museum of Modern Art
We All Live in Harrisburg Robert Cenedella Offset, 1979 New York, New York 17475 Andrew Wyeth’s portrait of a disabled neighbor is transformed into an anti-nuclear statement by substituting cooling towers from a nuclear power plant for the farmhouse. The title refers to the worst civilian nuclear accident in U.S. history. Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station is a civilian nuclear power plant located south of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. On March 28, 1979, the plant suffered a partial meltdown. The official government claim that the accident resulted in no deaths or injuries continues to be widely disputed. One of the two reactor cores has since been removed, but the site itself has not yet been decommissioned.
Tahitian Women On the Beach, Two Tahitian Women, Cruel Tales (Exotic Saying) Paul Gauguin Oil on Canvas 1891, 1899, 1902
Nuclear Free Pacific Wendy Black Red Letter Community Workshop Screenprint, 1983 Melbourne, Australia 23097 Paul Gauguin, celebrated French Post-Impressionist, painted exotic and romanticized view of Tahitian life in French Polynesia. Figures from three different Tahitian paintings are used to condemn French nuclear testing in the Pacific. Of the 210 French nuclear tests conducted between 1960 and1996, 193 took place in French Polynesia. Whereas Gauguin’s central figure offers us a bowl of fruit, in the poster she offers a nuclear explosion. Many Australian posters, such as this one, protest nuclear testing in the Pacific because the continent is in direct line with the fallout.
Tahitian Eve Paul Gauguin Watercolor Circa 1892 Musee de peinture et de Sculpture, Grenoble, France
Non Aux Essais NuclĂŠaires U. G. Sato Silkscreen, 1995 Tokyo, Japan 15035
Madonna and Child Dirk Bouts (c. 1415-1475) Oil on Panel Bruges MusĂŠe Royal des Beaux-Arts, Antwerp, Belgium
Madonna of the Bomb Karen Fiorito Silkcreen, 2002 Los Angeles, California 30004
This typical Northern Renaissance Virgin and Child, intended as an incarnation of humility and love is here framed by bombers and a bomb replaces the Christ-child in her lap. This blasphemous transformation exposes the religious fanaticism that has generated so many wars, then and now.
Women
Grande Odalisque Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres Oil on canvas, 1814 Louvre, Paris
Do Women Have to Be Naked to Get into the Met. Museum? Guerrilla Girls Offset, 2004 New York, New York 26979 Since 1985, the Guerrilla Girls, an anonymous group of art world activists, have worn Gorilla masks as they employ guerrilla tactics to expose sexism, racism and corruption in art and politics. They describe themselves as ‌feminist masked avengers in the tradition of anonymous dogooders like Robin Hood, Wonder Woman and Batman. Ingres’ Grand Odalisque may represent a stylistic move from Neo-Classicism into Romanticism, but it continues a long tradition of countless nude women painted by men. In 1989, the Guerrilla Girls produced the first version of this poster, critiquing the fact that the Metropolitan Museum, and museums all over the world, are filled with paintings about women but not by women. The 1989 statistics were Less than 5% of the artists in the Modern Art Sections are women, but 85% of the nudes are female. Fifteen years later, the statistics reveal less women artists in the Met, but more representations of nude men.
Arnolfini Wedding Jan van Eyck Oil on oak panel, 1434 National Gallery, London
One Quarter of all Violent Crime is Wife Assault Women's Action Coalition Digital Print of Offset, circa 1992 New York, New York 16900 The Arnolfini Wedding portrait, unique in its era, stands as an icon of fidelity, a virtue reinforced by the terrier. The shocking contemporary statistic does violence to a sacred moment depicted in an historically “sacred� work of art. The poster makes the point that behind any outwardly harmonious union, violence may lurk, and the statistic provokes the viewer to see the hand raised in an oath of fidelity as a potential slap.
Dead Toreador Edouard Manet Oil on canvas, 1864 National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
Death of a 20th Century Housewife Lola Scarpitta Digital print of oil painting, 2007 New York, New York 28804 Repeating the pose of Manet’s Dead Toreador, the Dead Housewife has died from an overdose and the frustration of housework. The poster condemns both the alienation of women whose lives are reduced to housework and a medical system that deals with the depression resulting from this frustration and other potentially contributing causes, by prescribing addictive drugs to suppress the symptoms and camouflage their problems. Women, significantly more than men, continue to be overprescribed with mood-altering drugs. Another high art reference can be seen in the Brillo box, immortalized by Andy Warhol.
Venus of Willendorf Oolitic limestone 24,000 BCE- 22,000 BCE Vienna Natural History Museum
Seeing Fat Mariona Barkus Offset, 1995 Los Angeles, California 16136
The Venus of Willendorf, the earliest generally accepted piece of prehistoric sculpture, is a prehistoric fertility figure or deity in which the full breasts and swollen abdomen were positive attributes. By placing the Willendorf statuette as her own reflection, Mariona Barkus visualizes the fear of so many women of being seen as or becoming obese.
Girl at Mirror Norman Rockwell The Saturday Evening Post, March 6, 1954 (cover) Oil on canvas, 1954 The Norman Rockwell Museum at Stockbridge, Massachusetts
Girl at a Mirror Maria Fe Nuesca Digital Print, 2009 Los Angeles, California 29565
Norman Rockwell (1894 – 1978) was a popular illustrator who designed covers for the Saturday Evening Post magazine for more than four decades, focusing on American daily life. In the original cover, a young girl compares herself to Jane Russell, a voluptuous film star of the 1940s and 1950s. Maria Fe Nuesca, while a student at Otis College of Art and Design, adapted the Rockwell to reflect anorexia, an ongoing epidemic in American life. Maria added a Barbie Doll, Hannah Montana case, Juicy Couture shopping bag and a supersize value pack of “Sweet’n Low,” all reflecting the girl’s obsession with appearance as defined by corporate interests. It is ironic that Jane Russell incarnates the big-busted ideal of her era, in contrast with the excessive thinness fashionable today.
Religion
The Entry of Christ into Brussels in 1889 James Ensor Oil on canvas, 1888 Getty Museum
American Fundamentalists Joel Pelletier Offset, 2004 Hollywood, California 28414 Ensor’s original painting was intended as an irreverent appropriation of the traditional “Entry of Christ into Jerusalem.” Satirizing contemporary religion and politics, the painting elicited much controversy and was not exhibited publicly until 1929. Ensor’s crowd includes public, historical, and allegorical figures along with the artist's family and friends. Pelletier’s adaptation continues the religious critique, here focusing upon American Christian fundamentalists. The haloed figure of Christ is the same in both, an ignored and isolated visionary in the midst of herd-like masses. Flag-draped coffins, evoking U.S. casualties in the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars, follow him, while preceding him are assorted corporate executives, media pundits, religious leaders, politicians, government officials, conservative celebrities, and dictators.
Sainte Famille (The Holy Family) William-Adolphe Bouguereau Oil on canvas, 1863 France
Every 10th Jesus Is a Queer Eric Handel Offset, circa 1990 Los Angeles, California 3045 With the 1948 release of his groundbreaking study on sexuality, Alfred Kinsey shocked the world with his findings that ten percent of men in the U.S. were homosexual. Although later studies have shown a wide range of alternative estimates, Kinsey's initial calculation has become commonly accepted in society and even embraced by many in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community as evident by groups such as the The Ten Percent Society, a North Dakota gay rights organization, and Ten Percent, a San Francisco magazine.
By incorporating this statistic into Bouguereau’s traditional religious portrait, Handel challenges the understanding of Christian views on homosexuality. Bouguereau’s idyllic depiction of the affectionate infants Jesus and John the Baptist in the loving embrace of the Virgin Mary evoke Christ's and Mary's love and compassion for all humanity, including the ten percent who may be gay or lesbian. The peacefulness of the scene emphasizes the stark contrast between the great benevolence and love expressed by Christ in the Bible and the hatred and violence directed towards the LGBT community that some attempt to justify with Christian ideology.
Immigration/Forced Relocation
Expulsion From Paradise Masaccio Brancacci Chapel Church of Santa Maria del Carmine Fresco, 1423 Florence, Italy
WHO'S NEXT? Bojan Bahic Sanda Hnatjuk Bahic Art Publishing Digital print of 1994 offset original Bosnia-Herzegovina 29093 The trauma of Masaccio’s Adam and Eve as they are expelled from the Garden of Eden, is a poignant precedent for the expulsion of the Bosnians by Serbian forces during the siege of Sarajevo (19921996)—the longest siege of a capital city in the history of modern warfare. Designed as a cover illustration for the popular Sarajevo news magazine Dani, the phrase Who’s Next? implies that the Bosnian refugees will not be the last to suffer from war and forced relocation. The shame of Adam and Eve, so strikingly evoked by Masaccio, is also the shame of the world’s failure to prevent and deal with the causes of displacement.
Calavera Oaxaqueña José Guadalupe Posada (c. 1852-1913) Zinc relief etching Mexico
Undocumented Citizens Carlos Cazares Ultrachrome print, 2009 Kansas City, Missouri 29190 This contemporary immigrant rights poster uses José Guadalupe Posada’s Calavera Oaxaqueña (circa 1903) to demand open borders and an end to discrimination against immigrants. The original print has an armed peasant from Oaxaca, the most culturally diverse state in Mexico. Cazares may have used Posada’s reference to Oaxaca in light of ongoing Mexican governmental repression against its indigenous populations. This repression has caused significant migration, including into the U.S. The bloody machete in both designs suggests resistance.
Occupy Life! The Great Tortilla Conspiracy Silkscreen, 2011 San Francisco, CA http://arthazelwood.com/instigator/occupy.html
New World Orders
Last Judgment Michelangelo Fresco, 1543-1541 Sistine Chapel, Rome, Italy
Recovery and Cooperation Giuseppe Croce European Recovery Program Lithograph, 1950 Rotterdam, Netherlands 28552 The Marshall Plan (officially the European Recovery Program, ERP) was the primary U.S. plan for rebuilding Western Europe and countering communism after World War II. The initiative, named after Secretary of State George Marshall, ran from 19481952 and helped rebuild the economies of Western Europe in the American interest. In the fall of 1950, a poster contest was held throughout Europe to promote the Marshall Plan. Over 10,000 pieces were submitted. 25 winning designs were selected by an international jury, and this poster is the fourth prize winner.
The construction in the foreground refers to economic recovery and the flags identify the European nations involved. The two figures from Michelangelo’s Last Judgment show cooperation. The Sistine Chapel Last Judgment (1535-1541) depicts the saved ascending to heaven and the damned descending into hell. Croce combines two separate figures from the Last Judgment and has one holding the hand of the other, as if pulling him up, giving a “helping hand� as was the intent of the Marshall Plan.
Calavera de la Catrina JosĂŠ Guadalupe Posada Zinc etching, 1913 Mexico
USA 200 Jahre Freiheit Und Gerechitigkeit (1776-1976) USA 200 Years of Freedom and Human Rights Ernst Volland Offset, 1976 Germany 19681 Posada’s famous Calaveras or “living skeletons” are used in many different artistic manifestations ranging from celebrating the Mexican Day of the Dead holiday to indicting injustice. In this poster, the German activist and political cartoonist, Ernst Volland, combines two separate calaveras to depict a skeletal couple. The female is a famous Posada figure who has been used by many artists, including Diego Rivera in his Alameda Park Mural in Mexico City.
Expensively dressed, the calaveras remind us that no matter how rich or powerful one is, death comes to everyone. This poster derides America’s claim to represent 200 years of freedom and human rights, and Volland uses the calaveras to represent the results of U.S. foreign policy.
Vitruvian Man Leonardo da Vinci Vellum, 1485 Accademia, Venice
Capitalismo: Denial of Human Rights Rafael Enriquez Organización de Solidaridad de los Pueblos de Africa, Asia y América Latina (OSPAAAL) Offset, 1977 La Habana, Cuba 23264 This Cuban poster was issued by the Organization in Solidarity with the Peoples of Africa, Asia and Latin America (OSPAAAL), the primary Cuban agency supporting popular struggles throughout the world. Based on the iconic Vitruvian Man, a drawing by Leonardo da Vinci representing ideal anatomical proportions, the OSPAAAL version transforms the man into a prisoner with an eagle, symbol of U.S. Imperialism, hovering above him. Leonardo’s ideal geometric proportions of the circle and square are disrupted by the hanging chains and a list of social problems. This poster challenges the ideological equation of capitalism with personal freedom.
A Bigger Splash David Hockney Acrylic on canvas, 1967 Private Collection
Freiheit statt Sozialismus F. K. Waechter Die Grünen (Political party) Offset, circa 1980-1995 Germany 28857 The harmonious composition of David Hockney’s signature California swimming pool paintings, in particular his A Bigger Splash, is desecrated by adding a defecating figure on the diving board and the mocking title Freedom instead of Socialism. F.K. Waechter, was a German cartoonist and children’s book author. The German Green Party, which has been elected to the German Parliament since 1983, campaigns against environmental pollution, nuclear energy, and abuse of animals. In this poster they are challenging the popular corporate conception that the “freedom” of the “free market” includes the freedom to pollute.
The Sower Jean-Francois Millet Oil on canvas, 1850 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The Aluminum Harvester Jos Sances Digital Print of 1992 silkscreen original Berkeley, California 28536 Millet’s pastoral painting, intending to highlight the dignity of the peasant and of his harsh labor, was criticized as savage, violent, and potentially socialistic when displayed at the Paris Salon of 1850. The peasant, although economically central to the society, was politically marginalized. Sances’ variation focuses on a contemporary marginalized type, who, rather than sowing to create food, collects or “harvests” the waste of the consumer society. The pair of oxen in Millet’s background, are transformed into an individual hauling two shopping carts, common portable storage for the homeless. Instead of the peasant productively driving oxen, the homeless person is pulling the carts away from the housing denied them.
Washington Crossing the Delaware Emanuel Leutze Oil on canvas,1851 Metropolitan Museum of Art New York, NY
Patriot Axe Sheila Pinkel Digital Print, 2008 Los Angeles, California 28531 Just 45 days after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the U.S., Congress passed the USA PATRIOT Act with virtually no debate. The contrived acronym stands for Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001. Spear-headed by President George W. Bush, the Patriot Act and subsequent legislation under the umbrella of “homeland security” limited many constitutionally protected freedoms and gave the government the power to access citizens’ records, tap their phones and email, and enter their homes without probable cause, without warrants, and without notification. In response, Sheila Pinkel used Emanuel Leutze’s patriotic icon, where a key moment of the American Revolution is dramatically—if unrealistically—depicted, 75 years after the 1776 event. German-born Leutze grew up in the U.S. and returned to Germany as an adult. He conceived the idea for this huge painting (12 feet x 21 feet) during the European Revolutions of 1848, hoping to encourage Europe's liberal reformers through the example of the American Revolution. Where Leutze chose the subject to inspire revolution, Pinkel lambasts the Patriot Acts by showing it as an axe against our constitutional rights, which the founding fathers established.
Dancers Practicing at the Barre Edgar Degas Pastel on paper, 1877
Brought to you by Philip Morris Joan Roelofs Digital Print, 2008 Keene, New Hampshire 29119 Degas’ signature ballerinas epitomize high art and culture. Contemporary culture, including ballet, art exhibitions, public television, and sporting events, increasingly depends upon corporate sponsorship. Philip Morris is a frequent and prominent underwriter in order to deflect attention from their role as a major producer of a proven carcinogen. In 2002, Philip Morris changed its name to Altria. Many critics have called this a transparent attempt to clean up the company’s image. That many ballet dancers smoke, despite the proven health risks, is an additional irony.
Treachery of Images RenĂŠ Magritte Oil on canvas, 1928-29 Los Angeles Country Museum of Art
Ceci N'est Pas Une Comic Peter Kuper Offset, 2008 New York, New York 29078 Rene Magritte’s Treachery of Images (This is Not a Pipe) plays on the contradiction between what you see (image) against what you read (words). Peter Kuper extends the idea of contradiction from the realm of art to the political by showing how reality is consistently denied by government lies and propaganda.
The Capitalist Dinner Diego Rivera Fresco, 1923-26 Ministry of Education Building, Mexico City
What's in Their Wallet? Laurie Selleck digital print Offset, 2009 29780 Former Vice President Dick Cheney replaces the presiding diner in Diego Rivera's Capitalist Dinner (La Cena Capitalista). The title parodies the slogan What's in your wallet? used in television commercials first aired by Capital One in 2005 to promote their credit card. The tattoo added to the woman’s arm refers to scandalously huge bonuses—$165 million—paid by insurance giant AIG to its executives following the $173 billion in Federal bailouts to prevent its collapse. The U.S. Congressional seal is added to the food sack.
The Gleaners Jean-Francois Millet Oil on canvas, 1857 Musée d’Orsay, Paris
Seasons Greetings Hadas Reshef Digital Print, 2007 Tel Aviv, Israel 30003 Hadas Reshef, an Israeli artist, frequently alters well-known works of art. Season’s Greetings a socialist feminist alteration of Millet’s The Gleaners, was included in a 2007 Tel Aviv art sale to support efforts to find jobs for Arab women in agriculture. The image affirms the project’s mission which is not to provide charity, but to support the active entry of women into the work cycle. Reshef adds additional meaning to her piece, by stating that, In this new rendering, work has raised the women from a situation of surrender and oppression to a struggle for dignity. The women are upright and strengthened, they are fighting women, pushed forward about a hundred years into a poster, as in Soviet socialist realism. But they aren't complete. Absence is present. The remains of the past are still there, eternal.
Lion in Ancient Persian Frieze from Darius I Palace Glazed stone brick, 510 B.C. Louvre, Paris
Iran [Mickey] Istvan Orosz Digital Print of 2007 original Hungary 29097 Although the shadow of Mickey Mouse, symbol of U.S. culture, admonishes the Persian lion, the roaring sculpted lion, symbol of Iran’s proud and ancient civilization, towers menacingly over Mickey. The lion, seen all over the art and architecture of ancient Iran, represents a special breed found only in Iran and extinct since the last was killed by a British hunter in the 19th century. The lion was added to the national flag during the reign of the Shah (1964-1979) but removed under the Islamic Republic. The allegorical cat and mouse conflict resonates here as Iranians sometimes refer to Iran as the cat, both because of the lion, and because the geographic shape of the country resembles a cat.