Poster of the Week

Hiroshima-Nagasaki

U. G. Sato

Silkscreen, 1995

Tokyo, Japan

Produced for the 1995 JAGDA Peace and Environment Poster Exhibition

The Nuclear Age began 65 years ago this month, during World War II, when President Harry S. Truman ordered nuclear bombs dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. On Monday, August 6, 1945, "Little Boy", the world's first nuclear bomb, was dropped over the central part of Hiroshima, Japan. The uranium-based detonation exploded about two thousand feet above the city with a blast equivalent to 13 thousand tons of TNT. On Thursday, August 9, “Fat Man,” a plutonium bomb, was detonated over Nagasaki. These two events are the only active deployments of nuclear weapons in a war. Within the first two to four months of the bombings, the acute effects killed 90,000–166,000 people in Hiroshima and 60,000–80,000 in Nagasaki, with roughly half of the deaths in each city occurring on the first day. In both cities, most of the dead were civilians

The poster of the week was produced for the 50^th anniversary of the bombing. It was made for a poster exhibition sponsored by the Japan Graphic Designers Association Inc. (JAGDA). The JAGDA Peace Poster Exhibition was inaugurated in 1983 as a way of promoting peace through the medium of the poster. Since then it has continued, both in Japan and overseas, to hold exhibitions of posters with a message created by association members under themes including peace, the environment, World Heritage and Japan.

The featured poster text says, "I'm here." The ruined building was the closest building to ground zero—only a few meters away—to remain standing following the bombing. Designed by the Czech architect Jan Letzel in 1916, it was the city's Industrial Promotion Hall. In 1966 it was made a UNESCO World Heritage site over the objections of the U.S. and China. It is known by several names: the Hiroshima Dome, A-Bomb Dome, or Hiroshima Peace Memorial.

Featured Artist: U. G. Sato was born in Tokyo in 1935. After graduating from Kuwasawa Design School in 1960, he established Design Farm in 1975. His works have been exhibited worldwide, including group shows and several solo exhibitions. His first U.S. exhibition took place in 2002, when the Center for the Study of Political Graphics produced, East West Graphics of Resistance--Posters of U.G. Sato (Japan) and Lex Drewinsky (Germany) at the Art Galleries of California State University, Northridge. This award winning artist has also initiated emergency Fax-Art campaigns. In 1995 he organized an anti-nuclear poster fax campaign in Paris and Tokyo to protest nuclear testing in the Pacific by France. In response to the United States military action against Iraq in 2003, he organized an anti-war poster fax campaign with Japanese artists.

Call for Political Art for "Critical Views 5: A New Generation"

Red Sun Press (Boston, Massachusetts) is accepting submissions to a juried show in conjunction with Jamaica Plain Open Studios, September 25-26, 2010. This show will highlight emerging artists illustrating contemporary struggles for social justice, the environment, and economic & political change.

How to enter:

Each artist may submit up to 5 digital images. Digital images should be JPEG files, under 5MB and emailed to Matt Osborn at mosborn@redsunpress.com

Required Documentation:

• A brief artist statement explaining how the work is political

• A list of digital images submitted. For each image listed give title, medium and size of work.

Maximum size of original artwork cannot exceed 3’ in any direction.

The artist’s name and address should appear on the page

Deadline for submissions: August 31, 2010

Red Sun Press will print a poster featuring the Best of Show artwork for distribution at the show.

Contact Matt Osborn at 617-524-6822 x31

email: mosborn@redsunpress.com • www.redsunpress.com

Poster of the Week

1982 Gay Olympic Games (original and censored versions)
Rob Anderson
Silkscreen, 1982
San Francisco, California

On Wednesday, August 4, 2010, Federal Judge Vaughn R. Walker ruled that California’s 2008 Proposition 8, banning same-sex marriage, was “unconstitutional.” Many Proposition 8 supporters have criticized the judge’s ruling as biased because he is openly gay. Yet this George H.W. Bush appointee had been criticized by the LGBTQ community for a 1982 case where he represented the U.S. Olympic Committee against the Gay Olympic Games.

Judge Walker’s role in this 1982 lawsuit so angered the LGBTQ community and their supporters that two dozen House Democrats, led by Nancy Pelosi, opposed his nomination by President Ronald Reagan to the Federal Court in 1987. He was nominated again by President George H. W. Bush in 1989, and confirmed.

CSPG’s Poster of the Week graphically shows the impact of the 1982 Gay Olympic Games decision. The Gay Games is the world’s largest sporting and cultural event organized by and specifically for LGBTQ athletes, artists, musicians, and others. It welcomes participants of every sexual orientation and every skill level. Originally called the Gay Olympic Games, it was launched in San Francisco in 1982.

Less than three weeks before the inaugural Gay Olympic Games, event organizers were sued by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) which claimed that the USOC had exclusive rights to the word Olympic in the United States. Defendants in the lawsuit contended that the law was capriciously applied and that if the Nebraska Rat Olympics and the Police Olympics did not face similar lawsuits, neither should the Gay Olympics. Many believed that homophobia was a motivation behind the lawsuit.

The ruling blocking the use of the name "Olympic" came down about a week after Rob Anderson had delivered the first batch of posters to the Gay Olympic Games Committee headquarters. It was a hand-screened run of 1,000. As they were only done in small batches, not that many had the word “Olympic” blacked out, probably less than 20. Since the Committee could no longer sell them in their original state, the posters went "underground" and the uncensored prints were sold to frame shops in the Castro. Both the original and censored versions are shown here.

The censored “Gay Games” poster is included in “Out of the Closet & Into the Street—Posters of LGBTQ Struggles & Celebrations” currently on display at the One Archives Gallery & Museum through September 26, 2010

626 N. Robertson Blvd.

West Hollywood, CA 90069

(entrance on El Tovar)

Gallery Hours:

Friday: 4:30-8:30

Saturday & Sunday: 1-5

Poster of the Week

Wouldn't you go to jail if it would help end the War?
Sister Mary Corita Kent
Silkscreen, 1971

The Pentagon Papers, was a U.S. Defense Department authored top-secret history of U.S. political-military involvement in Viet Nam from 1945 to 1967. Concerned about the escalating war, Daniel Ellsberg, one of the contributors to the Pentagon Papers and a former State Department official, gave the documents to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1969. When the war continued to escalate, Ellsberg gave the Pentagon Papers in early 1971 to the New York Times, Washington Post and 17 other newspapers. The papers revealed that the U.S. had deliberately expanded its war with carpet bombing of Cambodia and Laos, and coastal raids on North Viet Nam, none of which had been reported by the U.S. media.

It took Ellsberg and Tony Russo, his co-worker at the RAND Corporation*, weeks to secretly photocopy the 7,000 pages at night. Russo and Ellsberg were later charged with espionage, theft, and conspiracy. After learning that Ellsberg's psychiatrist had been burglarized (ordered by the Nixon administration) and the F.B.I had been illegally taping telephone conversations, federal court Judge William M. Byrne, Jr. dismissed all charges against them on May 11, 1973, before it reached a jury. During the trial, the Nixon administration had also offered Judge Byrne the position of FBI director.

Ellsberg later said the documents "demonstrated unconstitutional behavior by a succession of presidents, the violation of their oath and the violation of the oath of every one of their subordinates". He added that he leaked the papers to end what he perceived to be "a wrongful war". A 1996 article in the New York Times said that the Pentagon Papers "demonstrated, among other things, that the Johnson Administration had systematically lied, not only to the public but also to Congress, about a subject of transcendent national interest and significance."

The complete quotation is:

“But I was not wrong to hope that exposing secrets five presidents had withheld and the lies they told might have benefits for our democracy that were worthy of the risks. Wouldn’t you go to jail to help end the war?”

Pentagon Papers II

On Sunday, July 25, 2010, 92,000 classified documents were released by Wikileaks.org* to the New York Times, Guardian (UK) and Der Spiegel (Germany). Almost instantaneously referred to as “Pentagon Papers II”, these documents detail the war in Afghanistan between 2004 and December 2009, including “friendly fire” and civilian casualties. PFC Bradley Manning, A 22-year-old U.S. Army intelligence analyst, has been arrested after alleged chat logs were turned in to the authorities by a former hacker in whom he had confided.

On 5 April 2010, Wikileaks.org released classified U.S. military footage from a series of attacks on 12 July 2007 in Baghdad by a U.S. helicopter that killed 12 civilians, including two Reuters news staff, on a website called "Collateral Murder".

*RAND is a global policy think tank formed to offer research and analysis to the U.S. armed forces. Its Santa Monica headquarters is often referred to as “CIA West”.)

* Wikileaks.org is an international organization, based in Sweden. It publishes anonymous submissions and leaks of sensitive documents while preserving the anonymity of sources. Its website, launched in 2006, is a prime portal for unauthorized, accurate accounts, documents and video from distant battlefields. To see the recently released documents go to: http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Afghan_War_Diary,_2004-2010

Poster of the Week

Free Nelson Mandela

Rupert García

Offset, 1981

San Francisco, California

Nelson Mandela Day

In November 2009, the United Nations General Assembly, announced that Nelson Mandela's birthday, 18 July, is to be known as "Mandela Day” to mark his contribution to world freedom. Celebrated around the world, this year also marked his 92^nd birthday.

Mandela (born 1918) was an anti-apartheid activist and the leader of the African National Congress’ (ANC) armed wing. In 1962, he was arrested and sentenced to life in prison. He served 27 years, many on Robben Island with other political prisoners, opponents of the apartheid regime of South Africa. Apartheid was legalized racial segregation that was enforced by the National Party government between 1948 and 1994. Following Mandela’s release from prison in February 1990, he supported reconciliation and negotiation, and helped lead the transition towards multi-racial democracy in South Africa. Mandela served as President of South Africa from 1994-1999, the first South-African president to be elected in a fully representative democratic election. In 1993 he received the Nobel Peace Prize. Not until 1990, the same year he was released from prison, did a retired Central Intelligence Agency official admit that the CIA was responsible for Mandela’s capture.

South Africa's apartheid government had designated the ANC a terrorist organization during the group's decades-long struggle against whites-only rule, and ANC members were barred from receiving U.S. visas without special permission. Despite being one of the most respected and revered people in the world, Mandela remained on the U.S. terrorism watch list until July 2008, when it took an act of Congress to remove him from this list.

Poster of the Week

Keep Our Families Together!

Melanie Cervantes

Taller Tupac Amaru

Offset, 2008

Oakland, California

This poster is unusual in combining two themes—immigration and LGBTQ rights—that are rarely combined. Lesbian, Gay, and Queer families are impacted not only by racially discriminatory immigration laws but by heterosexist reunification laws that keep bi-national partners and their children from being together. This print honors those struggling families who are victims of these policies.

This is one of a 5 part poster series produced for the historic conference convened by TIGRA (Transnational Institute for Grassroots Research and Action) that took place in May 2008 in Mexico City. It brought together over 300 migrant leaders from the United States, Asia, Europe, Africa and Latin America to form a global association of remitters and their families. The other 4 posters in the series were designed by Jesús Barraza, Dylan Miner, Artemio Rodriguez & Favianna Rodriguez.

Keep Our Families Together! is included in two CSPG exhibitions:

Out of the Closet & Into the Streets—

Posters of LGBTQ Struggles & Celebrations

Currently on display at:

ONE Archives Gallery & Museum through September 26, 2010

626 N. Robertson Blvd. (entrance on El Tovar, North of Melrose)

West Hollywood, CA 90069

Friday: 4:30-8:30

Saturday & Sunday: 1-5

No Human Being is Illegal—

Posters on the Myths and Realities of the Immigrant Experience

Selections from this exhibition, including the poster of the week, are currently on display at:

The Annex at Avenue 50 Studio

Highland Park, CA 90042

323-258-1435

July 10 through August 8, 2010

Tue-Thurs 10-4 pm; Sat-Sun 10-4 pm

Poster of the Week

Unite to Fight!

Su Negrin

Offset

Times Change Press, New York, NY, 1973

Inkworks Press, Berkeley, CA, 1976

Unite to Fight! commemorates the Stonewall Riots that began on June 28, 1969.

The Stonewall Inn, on Christopher Street in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City, was a mafia-owned heterosexual nightclub. In 1966, the owners re-opened it as a gay bar. The age range of the clientèle was between the upper teens and early thirties, and the racial mix was evenly distributed among white, black, and Hispanic.

Despite weekly police payoffs, police raids were frequent. But the early morning raid of June 28, 1969 was different. People fought back. The Stonewall riots are generally credited with being the first instance in the U.S. that that gays and lesbians fought back against a government-sponsored system that persecuted sexual minorities, and they became the defining event that marked the start of the gay rights movement in the U.S. and around the world.

Unite to Fight! was originally printed in New York, NY, at Time Change Press, circa 1973. Times Change Press was founded in 1970 by Tom Wodetzki and Su Negrin, and provided opportunities for artists representing various themes on the political spectrum, including anarchist, Marxist-Leninist, communitarian, socialist, feminist, lesbian and gay. Times Change Press closed in 1974, the same year that Inkworks Press was founded in Berkeley, California. Inkworks, a democratically run worker collective and a union shop, reprinted it in 1976.

Unite to Fight! is featured in CSPG’s newest exhibition, Out of the Closet & Into the Street—Posters on LGBTQ Struggles & Celebrations which opens in West Hollywood on July 3, 2010.We hope to see you there.

Out of the Closet and Into the Street:
Posters of LGBTQ Struggles & Celebrations

July 3 – September 26, 2010

Opening Reception: July 3, 5-8 pm

at the ONE Archives Gallery & Museum
626 N. Robertson Blvd.
West Hollywood, CA 90069
(entrance on El Tovar)

Gallery Hours:
Friday: 4:30-8:30
Saturday & Sunday: 1-5

Sources:
Wikipedia: The Stonewall Riots
Online Archive of California: Guide to the Times Change Press Political Posters (PDF)