Poster of the Week

Amerika Is Devouring Its Children
Jay Belloli
Silkscreen, 1999 edition of 1970 silkscreen
Berkeley, California
One of three posters from CSPG's 10th Anniversary Portfolio
Limited edition of 100
Printed by Two Brothers Custom Silkscreen, El Monte, California

In April 1970, when the U.S. invaded Cambodia, a neutral country during the Viet Nam War, college campuses throughout the U.S. erupted in protest, with one-third of them shutting 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 all over the U.S. walked out of their classes. At the University of California, Berkeley, students silkscreened over 100 designs such as this onto reams of used computer paper. Jay Belloli, at the time a graduate student in Art History, transformed Francisco Goya’s Saturn Devouring His Children (1819-1823) into an anti Viet Nam War statement. This was the only poster Belloli ever made, and many publications listed “anonymous” as the credit. CSPG was the first to credit Belloli with this work when it was reproduced for the organization’s 10th anniversary. Since 1970, Belloli has served as curator or director of seven contemporary art institutions throughout the country and is currently the Director of Gallery Programs at the Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, California.