Review
of
4973: Berkeley Protest Posters 1970
4973:
Berkeley Protest Posters 1970
Francis Boutle Publishers (London), 2008
Political posters are a genre
that covers a lot of ground, and suffers from a remarkable lack of
attention by scholars and institutions. With the exception of those
produced during major historical events (such as the Spanish Civil War
or the Chinese Cultural Revolution) tremendous gaps exist in
scholarship around the countless posters produced since ink first hit
paper to influence people’s minds.
Given this void, one would like
to welcome 4973: Berkeley Protest Posters 1970 into the
ranks of books shedding light on an important but poorly-documented
moment in poster history. After all, second only to the workshops in
Paris during the 1968 general strike, the rash of political printmaking
that blossomed in the United States in May-June 1970 stands as one of
the defining moments in the modern poster renaissance. However,
although at first glance the book looks good – over 150 color
illustrations and some text - this book is so superficial and
exploitative that it sets a shamefully low standard.
This is, in fact, a hastily
assembled glorified sales catalog enhancing the value of a private
collection. Aside from numerous small factual errors, it contains no
original research, no bibliography, no interviews
with scholars or participants, no photographs of printing or
exhibitions, and no original analysis based in scholarship.
Every one of the Berkeley workshop posters in the book comes from a
single purchase made from a Berkeley antiquarian book dealer in early
2007. Even where there are only minor variants in ink color or paper,
all are included the book – along with details of their physical
condition, essential for establishing value but highly unusual for
books or exhibition catalogs.
The short introductory essay
does little more than provide a broad background, much of it skimmed
from readily available public websites, and no sources are credited.
Two major known institutional collections – U.C. Berkeley’s Bancroft
Library and the University of
British Columbia- are casually mentioned, but not explored. No one
who has been involved in this area of poster scholarship was contacted
for advice or background.
My advice? Save your $50 and
wait for a better book. Current efforts at both of the academic
repositories, as well as work in progress from other significant
private collections such as Michael Rossman’s "All
Of Us Or None" Archive (now at the Oakland Museum of California)
and the Center for the Study of Political Graphics in Los Angeles, are
steadily assembling the image documentation and research that will
truly help place these posters in the broader scope of political
printmaking.
Lincoln Cushing
Docs Populi/ Documents
for the Public
posted 8/22/2008, revised 4/23/2021
For the original
exposition about these posters, see introduction here
and also exhibition
"Up Against the Wall : Berkeley Posters from the 1960s"
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