The 20th Anniversary of the Center for the Study of Political Graphics is cause for celebration. We have created a unique and independent institution that is nationally and internationally recognized as a source of artistic inspiration and a graphic resource for education and activism. We honor and remember a myriad of popular movements for social justice. By preserving the posters created to further these causes, we also pay tribute to the stories of the people who produced these works of art in their efforts to create a better world. The existence of these posters prevents many struggles from falling into obscurity. We give recognition to the many artists, often anonymous, who place their talents in the service of others.

We celebrate twenty years of explosive graphics with a portfolio of five hand-silk-screened prints that were designed over the past two decades by five brilliant and engaged political artists. Three of the artists—Guillermo Bert, Juan Fuentes, and Barbara Kruger—generously permitted CSPG to make screen prints of works originally done in other media. Lex Drewinski and Emek generously permitted CSPG to produce new editions of out-of-print works. All five pieces were selected for their graphic power and contemporary relevance. They depict ecological disaster, denounce attacks on civil liberties, promote free speech, and protest ongoing illegal wars. Every issue addressed in these works remains timely and critical today.

CSPG’s growing archive currently contains more than 70,000 domestic and international posters produced in a staggering array of visual styles and printing media, going back as far as the Russian Revolution. With 95 percent of the archive dating from the 1960s to the present, CSPG maintains the largest archive of post–World War II political posters in the United States and one of the largest in the world.

CSPG’s archive has been built with posters generously donated by more than 1,300 artists, collectives, individuals, and organizations.
We have also been entrusted with major collections and archives, including the La Peña poster archive, Fireworks Graphics poster archive, Bob Fitch poster archive, David Kunzle poster collection, Jill and Michael McCain collection, Northland Poster Collective archive, and Peace Press archive. CSPG welcomes additional contributions to this increasingly important public resource.

Carol A. Wells
Founding Director
Center for the Study of Political Graphics

In this global environment where technology and the mass exchange of information has blurred the boundaries of modern civilization, I am interested in the universal Bar Code for the “branding” of information as a standardized mechanism used to define certain products. —Guillermo Bert

Guillermo Bert was born in Santiago, Chile in 1959 and holds an advanced Bachelor degree in Fine Arts from the Catholic University of Santiago. His work has been exhibited at and collected by numerous museums in the U.S. and South America. Bert has won multiple prizes, government grants and commissions, and has created
a number of public art projects such as permanent murals and installations. His paintings and drawings have been featured nationally and internationally on TV programs and movies.

Statue of Limitations is part of Bert’s BAR-CODE / Branding America series which have been the subject of three solo exhibitions since 2008. The products of Bert’s bar-codes are the ideals embodied within the representation of American government buildings and national symbols of North American culture, and ancient Andean ceremonial relics of South American culture. By fusing these forms with the Bar Code patterns—or the Universal Pricing Code technology—the subject is reduced to a single word or message that provokes a political commentary and social questioning about the price of democracy, and the value of justice in our contemporary time. These works reflect the current political climate and Bert’s perspective on the consumerism that permeates the core of American society.

Statue of Limitations was originally produced in 2007 as a mixed media on museum board with 24 ct. gold leaf. (57” x 29”). This is the first time it has been produced as a silkscreen print.

Printed by Karen Fiorito, Buddha Cat Studio, Los Angeles, California, October 2009.

Graphic design is present in my life 24 hours a day. Everything that surrounds us in this world has been created, if not by God, by a designer. There is no possibility of separating oneself from design. Even if one wants to! —Lex Drewinski

Lex Drewinski, was born September 11, 1951 in Szczecin, Poland. After graduating from the State Academy of Fine Arts in Poznan, Poland, he worked as a freelance graphic designer. From 1983-85 he was director and scriptwriter at the Animated Film Studio in Poznan, Poland. Drewinski moved to West Berlin in 1985, and continued as a freelance graphic designer. In 1992 he became a professor of Graphic Design at the University of Applied Sciences in Potsdam, Germany. At the university he organized Tolerance/ Intolerance, an international project that traveled to academic institutions in Madrid, Barcelona, and Ecuador. In 1998 he organized Future Visions for Design, an international Fax action campaign to coincide with the International Design Conference in Potsdam. In 2000 his poster LexICON A-Z was chosen to be exhibited at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, as a sample object of the 21st century. Since 2002 he has been part of the freelance staff of 2 + 3D, a Polish design magazine. Drewinski has had more than 50 solo shows throughout Europe, the Middle East, and Mexico and his graphic designs have won many first place prizes in international design competitions.

Drewinski credits his design inspiration from the good luck of having been born and able to study in a country where posters are valued as works of art. From the streets and fences to movie theater walls, he saw posters that are now regarded the world over as classics of poster design. Drewinski describes his signature sparse style as a way of avoiding extraneous details that would stand in the way of clear insight and vision. The poster medium in particular provides him with opportunities to express his opinions about a broad range of local and international subjects.

Poster Demonstration was originally produced in 1997 as a silkscreen announcing an exhibition of Drewinski’s posters.

Printed by Bony Toruño, Two Brothers Custom Silkscreen, El Monte, California, October 2009.

Poster Demonstration
Lex Drewinski
Printed by Bony Toruño
Two Brothers
Custom Silkscreen
El Monte, California
20 X 26in