Power to Imagination: Artists, Posters and Politics

Posters from the late 19th century to Robert Indiana's poster designs for Barack Obama tell the story of protest. Contemporary events seen through the eyes of 20th-century artists show a passion for freedom and human rights and demand equality and tolerance.

L'imagination au pouvoir was a slogan devised by artist Pierre Aléchinsky during the May 1968 student riots in Paris. The particular appeal of political posters for avant-garde artists comes from their dual inspiration of utopian ideals and Jive history. The postwar period, when Picasso's unassuming dove image was commandeered by the Communist peace movement, was succeeded by the general willful resistance of the younger generation in the 1960s. In 1968, many supported the students' demands and produced political posters. In the 1970s, the focus turned to freedom for minorities, and this was followed not much later by environmental pollution a great concern of artists such as Joseph Beuys. In the mid-80s, the AIDS scare turned eyes on to discrimination and social marginalisation; and the concept of equality resurfaced, especially in the work of American artists such as Keith Haring and Jenny Holtzer. The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, followed by globalization, was reflected in posters by Robert Rauschenberg and others.

This story of international protest movements, narrated through vivid designs by the great artists of our day, is also a story of the art of the period a selective view, perhaps, but nonetheless an expression of astonishing continuity and authenticity.

In addition the publication includes among others works by Andy Warhol, Jasper Jons, Antoni Tàpies, Joan Miró and Roy Lichtenstein.