Art as Activism: Graphic Art from the Merrill C. Berman Collection


1936 American Labor Party poster
"Throughout much of the 20th century, political protests and calls for action reached the public on posters and broadsides. Long before digital technology made worldwide communication possible, graphic artists used the powerful tools of modernist art to inform communities, stir up audiences and call attention to injustice. American graphic artists, often drawing on European models developed in the 1920s to fight fascism or promote revolution, used brilliant colors and violent imagery to produce ephemeral artifacts aimed to inspire and energize the angry or disaffected. Posted on walls and bulletin boards, or slapped up on store windows and church doors, these bright, quickly produced images embodied the anger of the masses, ultimately serving as the wallpaper of public discontent. ..."
New-York Historical Society
NY Times: Seeing the Power of Political Posters

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