August 2018

[DekeThornton]

Hello poster friends! It's been quite a while since I've posted, though I've still been lurking.

Anyway, I finally scored one of my "unicorns" I had been keeping an eye out for several years.

"Mexico por la libertad", a 1942 Mexican WWII propaganda poster by the artist Jose Bribiesca.

A former forum member also posted one of these a couple years back. It wasn't for sale then (I asked).  This is a different copy.

This isn't something I plan to put on the wall since the swastika is so prominent, but I do love the image of the Mexican eagle rending the Nazi flag:

[DekeThornton]

Another WWII propaganda poster.

This one was produced for the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs to help keep Latin America on the side of the Allies.

The Museum of Modern Art in NY sponsored a poster contest, and this was the winning entry. Amazingly, I found this press release from 1942 on the MOMA website with all the details of the contest!
https://www.moma.org/momaorg/shared/pdfs/docs/press_archives/831/releases/MOMA_1942_0073_1942-10-19_421019-67.pdf

[DekeThornton]

And yet another published by the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs

The artwork is by Walter Beach Humphrey, a member of the New Rochelle artist colony that also included Norman Rockwell.

Interestingly, I have not found any other reference to this poster on the internet. Which is strange, because I can't imagine why it would be rarer than any of the other posters distributed by the OCIAA/OIAA.

Anyway, it is in my opinion a kick-ass poster!

The title is "El sueño de los héroes; La obra de sus hijos", which translates to "The dream of the heroes; The work of their children."

It shows the great historical liberators of the Americas including:

• George Washington (USA)
• Simón Bolívar (Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Panama)
• Bernardo O'Higgins (Chile)
• José de San Martín (Argentina, Chile, Peru)
• José Martí (Cuba)
• José Gervasio Artigas (Uruguay)
• José Bonifácio de Andrada (Brazil)
• Francisco Morazán (Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica)
• Don Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla (Mexico)
• Toussaint L'Ouverture (Haiti)

[okiehawker]

And yet another published by the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs

The artwork is by Walter Beach Humphrey, a member of the New Rochelle artist colony that also included Norman Rockwell.

Interestingly, I have not found any other reference to this poster on the internet. Which is strange, because I can't imagine why it would be rarer than any of the other posters distributed by the OCIAA/OIAA.

Anyway, it is in my opinion a kick-ass poster!

The title is "El sueño de los héroes; La obra de sus hijos", which translates to "The dream of the heroes; The work of their children."

It shows the great historical liberators of the Americas including:

• George Washington (USA)
• Simón Bolívar (Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Panama)
• Bernardo O'Higgins (Chile)
• José de San Martín (Argentina, Chile, Peru)
• José Martí (Cuba)
• José Gervasio Artigas (Uruguay)
• José Bonifácio de Andrada (Brazil)
• Francisco Morazán (Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica)
• Don Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla (Mexico)
• Toussaint L'Ouverture (Haiti)

Hi Deke, It reminded me of many of the beautiful murals done for public buildings during the Great Depression here in the U.S.  So, I looked up Humphrey and "mural" and it looks like your poster is from this mural:  Patriotic Montage (1933-34) housed at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.  Here's the link https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/patriotic-montage-10944

My best

Okie

[DekeThornton]

Hi Deke, It reminded me of many of the beautiful murals done for public buildings during the Great Depression here in the U.S.  So, I looked up Humphrey and "mural" and it looks like your poster is from this mural:  Patriotic Montage (1933-34) housed at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.  Here's the link https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/patriotic-montage-10944

My best

Okie

Thanks for finding that, Okie!  That is an important piece of the puzzle!

It is interesting that the Smithsonian gives a fairly wide ten-year range for the creation date of the painting ("ca. 1933-1943").

I am pretty sure the aircraft in the painting/poster is a B-24 Liberator which entered service in 1941.

So it seems almost certain the painting was created in the 1941-45 period.

I wonder if any alternate language poster versions were also published? Some of the OCIAA/OIAA posters were printed in Spanish only, but others also had variants in English and Portuguese.

[Crazy Vick]

Very nice Deke and congrats... Is it common?  I ask because I had never seen this one before. 

Wonder if the office of IA affairs a precursor to the OAS that we know today?

[DekeThornton]

Very nice Deke and congrats... Is it common?  I ask because I had never seen this one before. 

Wonder if the office of IA affairs a precursor to the OAS that we know today?

Thanks!

I doubt the OIAA posters are truly rare in an absolute sense -- and they don't sell for big bucks for the most part -- but they take effort to find.  I would imagine the print runs were smaller than your run-of-the-mill US WWII propaganda posters produced for domestic consumption.

After I found that link to the press release for the poster contest on the MOMA website, I learned after clicking around that a catalog was produced for the exhibition of winning and honorable mention posters.

And sure enough, I found one of these original 1942 exhibition catalogs for sale for $20!

MOMA also reproduces the catalog online for your viewing pleasure.
https://www.moma.org/documents/moma_catalogue_3115_300061976.pdf

As far as I know besides the winning design, maybe only one of the other poster designs was published for wide distribution.

[DekeThornton]

Thanks for finding that, Okie!  That is an important piece of the puzzle!

It is interesting that the Smithsonian gives a fairly wide ten-year range for the creation date of the painting ("ca. 1933-1943").

I am pretty sure the aircraft in the painting/poster is a B-24 Liberator which entered service in 1941.

So it seems almost certain the painting was created in the 1941-45 period.

I wonder if any alternate language poster versions were also published? Some of the OCIAA/OIAA posters were printed in Spanish only, but others also had variants in English and Portuguese.

I went ahead and sent a message to the Smithsonian American Art Museum with some of my details and speculation about the painting and poster. We'll see if anybody cares or if I came off like some strange obsessive person!

[DekeThornton]

Very nice Deke and congrats... Is it common?  I ask because I had never seen this one before. 

Wonder if the office of IA affairs a precursor to the OAS that we know today?

Well, it's been a fruitful month!  I managed to snag the Portuguese version as well!