Serve the People by Karen Ishizuka

Author:Karen Ishizuka
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Verso Books

Posters: Art for the People

The most iconic art form of the Sixties was the silk-screen poster. Poster art was a practice of politically engaged cultural production that not only promoted issues and events but also democratized the aesthetics and distribution of what was considered “art.” Poster art curator Lincoln Cushing indicated, “Synonymous with rebellion and visual wit, these fragile documents were densely packed cultural viruses capable of transmitting such abstract concepts as ‘solidarity,’ ‘sisterhood,’ or ‘peace’ all over the world.”2 Activist-artist Josh MacPhee locates its origins with the Cuban internationalist group, the Organization in Solidarity with the Peoples of Africa Asia and Latin America, that included folded-up posters in their publication, Tri-Continental, which at its height was distributed to eighty countries in multiple languages.3 Regarding the production of Asian American posters, Leland Wong of Kearny Street Workshop (KSW) in San Francisco said, “It was natural for us to get into the screen-printing business at that time because it was the most economic way to print anything. You know, it didn’t take a lot of money to set up, and the product was very strong, the colors were very vibrant.”4

KSW was one of the most prolific sources of poster art during the Asian American movement. Conceived in 1972 by artists Jim Dong, Lora Foo, and Mike Chin at the International Hotel in San Francisco, KSW conducted numerous classes and workshops in arts, crafts, music, and dance. Even given its long and impressive resume, the quality and quantity of its poster art is unparalleled. As art historian Julianne P. Gavino wrote:

How the posters subsequently conveyed KSW’s mission is as much a part of the story as the aesthetic of the posters themselves. By their very placement in the selected communities, the posters communicated a significant subtextual message: Asian American ethnic communities are to be valued and made visible in society.5

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