Art Studio 144: Printing Making and Activism (Autumn 2021)

Welcome! Students in Art Studio 144 are welcome to explore our collections featured in your class visit!

Japanese woodblock print collection: Japanese woodblock prints (nishiki-e) depicting battle and political scenes, primarily from the late 19th century.

Kamishibai collection 1939-1944:  Japanese illustrated paper play sheets, intended primarily for children and women at the homefront and dealing with World War II propaganda themes.

Militant photographic collection: Photographs, drawings, and printed reproductions of illustrations depicting activities of anti-war, civil rights, labor, racial justice, women's rights, and other protest movements in the United States and other countries, mainly from the 1960s through the 1990s. Includes many photographs from Cuba and Nicaragua. Also includes photographs depicting activities of the Socialist Workers Party in the United States and of related organizations in the United States and abroad. Collected by the New York newspaper The Militant for use in illustrating its issues.

Register of the New Left collection: The New Left Collection largely relates to radical movements for political and social change in the United States during the 1960s and 1970s. It is the largest resource in the archives devoted to this turbulent period in American history. Organized alphabetically by subject file, the collections consists of serial issues and other printed matter, and includes a great deal of ephemera, especially leaflets and flyers. Topics covered in the collection include the movement against the Vietnam War; student radicalism; the civil rights movement and black militancy; revolutionary organizations; the women's liberation movement; and the counter-culture.

Student Movements Guide: These collections document student protest movements of the 1960s and 1970s—particularly the Vietnam War era—in the United States, France, Iran, Germany, Mexico, and elsewhere. They contain leaflets, serials, and other printed matter. Some material was collected or compiled by individuals and organizations opposed to student radicalism. Posters pertaining to student protests are available in the poster collection.

 

Posters:

 

Posters from France

FR 441 - Drawing of an Algerian horseman. Text urges Frenchmen to subscribe to the liberation loan.

FR 498 - Drawing of colonial troops in battle.

 

Posters from China

CC 27 - A portrait of Mao Tse-tung.

CC 279 - A worker, a soldier, and a woman farmer.

 

Posters from Cuba

*CU 54 - Abstract painting of a soldier calling, "A las armas!" Rubber-stamp impression: Pasadena Art Institute, 46 North Los Robles Avenue, Pasadena 1, California.

CU 111 - Cuba solidaridad ... La humanidad debe perdurar, y si nos lo proponemos y somos conscientes, y somos valientes, perdurara. - Fidel Castro, 15 de septiembre de 1981. ... [text repeated in English, French and Arabic (?)]. OSPAAAL.

 

Posters from Germany, Japan, International, and Nicaragua

GE 813 - Drawing of a hand with its five fingers about to grab "the enemy."

GE 1760 - Drawing of a sad family. Vote Hitler to improve their fate.

INT 503 - International Youth Meeting in Solidarity with Revolutionary Afghanistan, Kabul, 27 - 28 September 1980.

JA 37A - A map with illustrations of various nations. Text in English, Japanese and Chinese. Variant of JA 37.

NQ 87 - Graphic design of a circle of rifles, with a hand making a "V" symbol in the center; also a map of Nicaragua.

 

Posters from Russia/Soviet Union

*RU/SU 801 - Worker and peasant stand in foreground, crowds of jubilant workers and peasants march in background, sun rises over booming factories.

*RU/SU 1262 - Poster depicts worker holding up sign urging workers to vote for the Bolsheviks.

*RU/SU 1280 - Painting of a blacksmith at work being assisted by a woman worker; workers in the background working on a train; factories and plants at work; Red Army soldier's cap, hammer and sickle, stack of rifles, in the foreground.

RU/SU 1318 - Poster depicts map of famine stricken area. Text urges confiscation of church property for the benefit of the hungry.

*RU/SU 2202 - Drawing of a German soldier hairy as a beast, on a crutch, a drum with "Blitzkrieg" ripped off his shoulder, "total mobilization" flag torn.

RU/SU 2205 - Drawing of young soldiers attacking with bayonets beasts under a plane with a swastka on it. Behind the attackers, more multi-racial angry young men.

RU/SU 2317 - Cover for a series of posters. Right: reproduction of a poster representing a young couple under a red flag. Centre: a couple of astronauts around the globe.

 

Posters from the United Kingdom and United States

UK 191 - Painting of father in an armchair with his daughter on his lap; his son plays with toy soldiers on the floor.

*UK 199 - Certificate with picture of King George V and crossed flags.

*US 105 - Large Red Cross symbol with text.

US 2077 - Drawing of a cat attacking a group of tanks.

US 2485 - Painting of dog with Red Cross emblem on back and with a neck pouch. Flaming city in background. Variant of US 2485.

US 2752 - Painting of woman with kerchief on her head and work clothes with shell for gun. Along the side of the poster the hats of various branches of women's service are lined up and identified.

US 8064 - Drawing of a black man wearing a placard with small scenes from the civil rights movement of the late 1950's-1960's.

US 8089 - Drawing of an angry group of protestors, and a caricature of the Shah in a vehicle of some type heading toward the White House.

US 8107 - Poster depicting an African American warrior

*US 8109 - Drawing of a black panther.