MasterPeaces:
High Art for Higher Purpose
From Dada to Punk, from anti-war movements to feminism and ecology, high art has been repeatedly incorporated into a visual language that ranges from the iconoclastic to overt protest. When Marcel Duchamp drew a moustache and a goatee on a reproduction of the Mona Lisa in 1919, he was symbolically desecrating a masterpiece. By this act, he challenged the boundaries between high art and protest art. The very term “high art,” or “fine art,” implies a pejorative reference to other visual arts, including the protest poster. The more revered or well-known the art the more likely it is to be parodied, defaced, appropriated or altered.
Distinctions between the high arts and protest graphics once were clear. Where the high arts value authorship, originality, and uniqueness, the majority of protest posters are anonymous, derivative, and produced in large quantities. When a fine art print is produced in multiples, it is generally signed, numbered, and printed in limited editions on high quality paper. Protest posters are often quickly produced, for a specific cause or event, and use whatever paper is available, including cheap high acid newsprint. Subtlety, often to the point of ambiguity is an important quality in high art. In contrast, if the message in a protest poster cannot be instantly understood, it is not effective.
Art by Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Picasso are among the most frequently appropriated for political posters, and for a wide variety of issues. The Mona Lisa, arguably the most famous female portrait of all time, promotes abortion rights in a 1980s Spanish poster, and disabled rights in a 1990s German poster. The participants in Leonardo’s Last Supper are replaced with Chicano heroes in one poster, and feminist artists in another.
If a work was overtly political in its inception, contemporary appropriations build upon this meaning and give it contemporary significance. Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People, celebrating the French Revolution of 1830, is used in a 1989 poster to focus on the struggle for self-determination in North Ireland. Picasso’s Guernica, produced in 1937 to protest Nazi bombing of civilians during the Spanish Civil War, has been used in posters opposing U.S. supported wars in Viet Nam, Central America, the Persian Gulf, and Iraq.
The posters in MasterPeaces use earlier art to focus on contemporary issues, including anti-nuclear, anti-war, disabled rights, ecology, HIV/AIDS, sexism and homophobia, and women’s rights. The alteration can be as simple as placing text over an original work to change its context, as in War is Good Business, Invest Your Son. Or a piece can be completely reworked as in Evolve or Dissolve (1991) by “O”, where the single figure in Munch’s The Scream (1893), has been multiplied into countless terrified and ethnically diverse people, screaming as they run from burning oil wells during the first Gulf War.
Although some posters reaffirm the message of the art they appropriate, others deliberately play off or transpose the original meaning, taking advantage of the high profile of the original work in order to call attention to issues that didn’t exist at the time the original art was made. Michelangelo’s Creation scene in the Sistine Chapel ceiling (1512) promotes safe sex when God hands Adam a condom in a late 20th century Brazilian poster. In We All Live in Harrisburg (1979), Robert Cenedella replaces the house in Andrew Wyeth’s Christina’s World (1948) with cooling towers, warning about the dangers of nuclear power plants. The title refers to the site of the 1979 partial meltdown at Three Mile Island, near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the most serious commercial nuclear power plant accident in U.S. history.
Museums around the world are filled with art commissioned by the church, the state, and other powerful institutions and individuals. All of this art was political as it reinforced a particular world view. Artists did not receive commissions unless they could clearly and effectively convey their patrons’ ideology. That much of this art is no longer considered political is evidence of a lack of historical and art historical understanding.
Political posters present controversial topics in unconventional ways, and they intend to provoke a response. They can anger viewers or make them laugh. Their goal is to challenge the status quo, challenge our preconceptions, and make us question the world and our responsibilities. After creating Guernica, Picasso said, Painting is not done to decorate apartments; it is an instrument of war against brutality and darkness. The same can be said about the political poster. Through this and other traveling exhibitions, the Center for the Study of Political Graphics is reclaiming the power of art to inform, inspire, and incite to action.
I. ANTI WAR PIETAS
1. Pieta
Michelangelo
Marble, 1499
St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City
2. War Is Good Business
Lambert Studios, Inc.
Offset, 1969
United States
18362
Based on: Michelangelo’s Pieta
This icon of a mother’s grief over her slain son is transformed into a poignant protest against the Viet Nam War. The added text parodies advertising slogans, war profiteering, and the military-industrial complex in which generals and politicians sit on corporate boards. When it became evident that the war was being lost and the anti-war movement was gaining popular momentum, Wall Street and the corporate media eventually decided the investment of lives and resources was counterproductive. Over 58,000 U.S. soldiers and several million Vietnamese were killed. Religious institutions were divided, with New York’s Cardinal Spellman serving as a cheerleader for the war, while other clergy, including Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Berrigan brothers, vigorously protested the war.
3. Pieta
John Emerson
No RNC Poster Project
Offset, 2004
New York, New York
22702
Based on: Michelangelo’s Pieta
The spiked crown turns the Virgin Mary into the Statue of Liberty, holding the corpse of a soldier draped in the U.S. flag. This poster was part of the NO RNC Poster Project, organized by artists to protest the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York City, and the Iraq and Afghanistan wars initiated by President George W. Bush. Over 50,000 posters in dozens of designs were distributed by the NO RNC Poster Project.
4. Never Again
Lester Doré
Digital Print, 2009
Madison, Wisconsin
29993
Based on: Michelangelo’s Pieta
Combining Christian and Islamic iconography, the skeletal figures evoke Michelangelo’s or virtually any Pieta. The chador-draped Virgin sits amidst a rubble-strewn landscape destroyed by war. The oil wells signify Iraq. “Never Again” was a slogan of the Jewish Defense League, referring to the Holocaust. Its use here in Arabic denounces a new genocide in the Middle East.
II. GUERNICA REVISITED
5. Guernica
Pablo Picasso
Oil on canvas, 1937
Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain
Picasso painted Guernica, arguably the most powerful
and best known anti-war artwork of the 20th century, to protest
one of the most horrific events of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939)—the
bombing of the Basque town of Guernica in April 1937. For more than
three hours, Nazi aircraft carpet bombed the town. One hundred thousand
pounds of high-explosive and incendiary bombs were dumped a village with a
population of 5,000, killing or wounding up to 2,000 civilians and destroying
70% of the town. Although Guernica was of no strategic value, it gave
the Germans an opportunity to try out new equipment and tactics, while supporting
Spanish nationalist efforts to overthrow the democratically elected government
of Spain.
More than seven decades later, Guernica, continues to resonate its anti-war statement from Viet Nam to Iraq.
6. Stop The War In Vietnam Now!
Pablo Picasso
Offset, circa 1970
United States
24232
Based on: Pablo Picasso’s Guernica
7. Neutronenbombe NEIN
Neutron Bomb NO
Artist Unknown
Offset, 1981
Germany
7688
Based on: Pablo Picasso’s Guernica
Picasso’s Guernica is intact, while people-shaped voids refer to the audience that would no longer be there after the detonation of a weapon that destroys life but saves property and art. The Neutron Bomb, referred to as an enhanced radiation weapon, was also called the capitalist bomb because, unlike other nuclear bombs, it would destroy people but not buildings. It was conceived in 1958 at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, which was founded, managed and operated by the University of California, Berkeley from 1953-2007. In 1978, President Jimmy Carter planned to deploy neutron warheads in Europe, but delayed production due to domestic and international protests. President Ronald Reagan started production in 1981, the date of the poster. Although France had tested a Neutron Bomb in 1980 in French Polynesia, the U.S. intent to deploy them in Europe provoked this poster.
8. Two Years of War and Occupation
Not In Our Name
Camille
Offset, 2005
United States
24081
Based on: Pablo Picasso’s Guernica
With the logos of assorted corporations covering the equipment, this poster emphasizes the corporate profiteering in the ongoing Iraq War. The Baghdad Museum, shown on the left, contained priceless relics from ancient Mesopotamia before it was looted in 2003 at the beginning of the Iraq War. In the months preceding the war, international antiquities experts asked The Pentagon and British government to ensure the museum's safety from both combat and looting. Troops guarded the oil fields, but the museum was left unguarded and for three days it was ransacked. In February 2009, the museum re-opened but about half of it's looted are still missing.
III. LEONARDO DA VINCI, 1452-1519
9. Portrait of Cecilia Gallerani (Lady with an Ermine)
Leonardo da Vinci
Oil on wood panel, 1489
Czartoryski Museum, Krakow, Poland
10. War is Always in Fashion
Michele Castagnetti
Digital Print, 2009
Venice, California
29194
Based on: Leonardo da Vinci’s Portrait of Cecilia Gallerani (Lady with an Ermine)
Michele Castagnetti’s title has a double meaning. His variation of the Leonardo portrait not only points to society’s addiction to war, but the cynicism of using military garb and camouflage motifs as a contemporary fashion statement—even in children’s clothing.
11. Mona Lisa
Leonardo da Vinci
Oil Painting, 1503
Louvre, Paris, France
12. Manifestación
César Bobis
Offset, circa 1983
Spain
5283
Let Women Decide
The Right to Abortion
Based on: Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa
The repeated head of the Mona Lisa, whose ubiquity casts her as Everywoman, suggests the sheer numbers of women who are being called to the demonstration supporting the right to abortion. It simultaneously suggests the widespread need for safe and legal access to abortion.
13. Niemand ist Vollkommen
Klaus Staeck
Steidl Göttingen
Offset, 1981
Heidelberg, Germany
11634
No One is Perfect
Based on: Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa
The Mona Lisa, idealized and universal symbol of womanhood, is shown in a wheelchair to promote the rights of the disabled.
IV. LAST SUPPERS
14. The Last Supper
Leonardo da Vinci
Fresco, 1490s
Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan, Italy
15.Some Living American Women Artists
Mary Beth Edelson
Offset, 1972
United States
15858
Based on: Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper
Portraits of American women artists replace the heads of Leonardo’s figures. Portraits of more women artists frame the painting. Designed in the 1970s in the midst of the second wave feminist movement, the poster protests the inequality of opportunity and of recognition for women artists.
Despite the heightened awareness of the problem, this discrimination persists, as evidenced by the Guerrilla Girls' poster Do Women Have to Be Naked to Get into the Met? shown elsewhere in this exhibition.
16. The Last Supper of Chicano Heroes
José Antonio Burciaga
Ed Souza
Offset, 1989
California
2241
This poster reproduces a detail from a mural entitled The History of Maize, located in the Chicano-themed Casa Zapata dormitory at Stanford University. The heroes shown here were selected through a poll the artist conducted among students, faculty, and staff. The Virgen de Guadelupe, patron of the Americas and the spiritual hero of Mexican and Chicano culture, did not place first but she was positioned above out of respect. Leading the poll was Che Guevara, in the position of Christ. The dedication on the tablecloth from one student's hero list: "...and to all those who died, scrubbed floors, wept and fought for us.” reinforces the portraits of some food service workers from Stanford in the back row. For a complete list of the people represented, visit: http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~josecuel/chicanismo.htm
Based on: Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper
17. The Last Supper
Albrecht Dürer
Woodcut, 1523
18.Unidad de la Izquierda
Unity of the Left
El Machete
Offset, 1980
Mexico
28411
Based on: Albrecht Dürer’s The Last Supper
El Machete, a Communist Party journal from Mexico, made a poster out of their June 1980 cover titled Unity of the Left. The cover closely follows Albrecht Dürer’s design (1523), changing only the heads. Karl Marx substitutes for Jesus, cradling Rosa Luxemburg in his arms. To the left, Lenin replaces St. Peter, the principal apostle traditionally represented as bald. Che Guevara is to the right. Other figures include Friedrich Engels, Joseph Stalin, Leon Trotsky, and Mao Tze-Tung. The fractiousness, disunity, and widespread accusations of betrayal and heresy of the left parallels the situation of Judas and the early Christians.
V. MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI, 1475-1564
19. Creation of Adam
Michelangelo
Fresco, 1511
Sistine Chapel, Vatican City
20. Take Care
Associação Brasileira Interdisciplinar de AIDS
Offset, 2002
Brazil
15001
Based on: Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam
Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam detail from the Sistine Chapel Ceiling, 1511, is one of the most widely reproduced, adapted and popularized fine art images. This detail of Michelangelo's "Sistine Chapel ceiling, showing "The Creation of Adam," has additional layer of irony, as it shows God promoting safe sex, directly challenging the Catholic Church’s continued opposition to the use of condoms.
21. And God Created Woman in Her Own Image
Ann Grifalconi
Greyfalcon House
Offset, 1970
New York, New York
8308
Based on: Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam
Ann Grifalconi not only changes Adam and God into females, but makes God Herself into a black woman with an “Afro” hairdo, as popularized by Angela Davis and the Black Panther Party in the 1960s and 1970s.
22. Event for Peace
Peace Committee of Health Professionals
Offset, 1978
Athens, Greece
28525
Based on: Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam
23. Ein Stück vom Paradies
A Piece from Paradise
Lex Drewinski
Silkscreen, 1993
Berlin, Germany
13952
Based on: Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam
Drewinski, reducing the hands of Adam and God to silhouettes, shows Adam defiantly giving the finger to his would-be creator.
24. David
Michelangelo
Marble, 1501-1504
Gallery of the Art of Drawing, Florence, Italy
25. Jesse Helms Says: Censored!
Artist Unknown
Silkscreen, 1989
Los Angeles, California
3126
Based on: Michelangelo’s David
Jesse Alexander Helms, Jr. (1921–2008), a five-term Republican Senator from North Carolina, was an outspoken conservative who at various times opposed civil rights, including school integration, feminism, gay and lesbian rights, affirmative action and abortion. In 1989, several publicly funded exhibitions drew conservative ire, including Andre Serrano’s Piss Christ—a photograph of the crucified Christ submerged in the artist's urine, and an exhibition of Robert Mapplethorpe’s homoerotic photographs on display just a short walk from the Capitol. In response, Helms spearheaded a movement attacking the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). This resulted in drastic cuts in federal funding for the arts, targeting controversial or irreverent projects, especially if involving sex or religion. This poster uses one of the most famous male nudes in the world to imply that Helms would have had it censored.
26. Per le Cittá Italiane Tira una Brutta Aria
[For the Italian Cities Throw Bad Air]
Sinistra Ecologista; Democratici di Sinistra; Sinistra Giovanile
Offset, 2004
Rome, Italy
31415
Based on: Michelangelo’s David
VI. FRANCISCO GOYA, 1746-1828
27. Saturn Devouring One of His Sons
Francisco Goya
Oil on mural transferred to canvas, 1819-1823
Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain
28. Amerika Is Devouring Its Children
Jay Belloli
Silkscreen, 1970
Berkeley, California
3179
Based on: Francisco Goya’s Saturn Devouring One of His Sons
In April 1970, when the U.S. invaded Cambodia, a neutral country during the
Viet Nam War, college campuses throughout the U.S. erupted in protest, and
one-third of them shut down. At Kent State University in Ohio, four
students were killed by national guardsmen deployed to repress the protests.
Two days later, two students were killed at Jackson State College in
Mississippi.
Outraged by the escalating violence abroad and at home, students at the University of California, Berkeley walked out of their classes. They silkscreened over 100 designs such as this onto reams of used computer paper, transforming the Goya into an anti Viet Nam War statement. The choice of this myth is appropriate as governments, whether of nations or universities, often see themselves as father figures, in this case, sending their children to kill and be killed.
29. Please Vote
Richard Serra
Pleasevote.com
Digital Print of 2004 offset original
New York, New York
29992
Based on: Francisco Goya’s Saturn Devouring One of His Sons
Another anti-war adaptation of Goya’s work, but now against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Here, President George W. Bush’s head replaces that of Saturn. When The Nation magazine reproduced Serra’s design on the back cover of its July 5, 2004 issue, many readers, failing to recognize the Goya original, wrote scathing letters to the editor, complaining that gory image went too far.
VII. EUGENE DELACROIX, 1798-1863
30. Liberty Leading the People
Eugene Delacroix
Oil on canvas, 1830
Louvre, Paris, France
Eugene Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People was one of the most famous and radical paintings of its time. It celebrates the Revolution of July 28, 1830, when the people of Paris once again dethroned the king. Liberty shows the hope shared by the many classes who felt oppressed under the previous regime. This hope was short-lived, as was the public display of the painting, which soon was considered too revolutionary to remain on view. It was rarely shown until it entered the Louvre in 1874.
31. Women of the World Unite!
Jurgen Grefe
Jane Carson
Offset, 1989
Bemidji, Minnesota
12101
Based on: Eugene Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People
Using the central figure of Delacroix’s Liberty leading the People. The text alters the famous line from Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto of 1848, “ Workers of the World Unite, You Have nothing to lose but your chains”, substituting “women” for “workers.”
32. 1789 France ‑ 1989 Ireland: The Struggle Continues
Robert Ballagh
Offset, 1989
Ireland
6867
Based on: Eugene Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People
Northern Ireland has been the scene of sectarian conflict between its Roman Catholic and Protestant populations for generations. The struggle that raged from the 1970s through the 1990s, included bombings, assassinations and street violence, and resulted in up to 2,000 deaths. On the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution, Dublin artist Robert Ballagh’s poster shows Liberty holding the flag of the Republic of Ireland—tricolor like the French flag, only substituting green for blue and orange for red. On the young boy’s shoulder bag Ballagh has added the Easter Lily insignia used by Irish republicans to commemorate martyrs in the struggle against British rule.
33. Resistencia/Resistance
Asamblea de Artistas Revolucionarios de Oaxaca (ASAR-O); Vil
Stencil, 2006
Oaxaca, Mexico
26704
Based on: Eugene Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People
In May 2006, 70,000 teachers went on strike in the southern Mexican state of Oaxacato demand better pay and measures to help poorer pupils, including breakfasts for schoolchildren, scholarships, uniforms, shoes, medical services and textbooks. The teachers also demanded the resignation of Governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, who became governor of Oaxaca in 2004, amid charges of electoral fraud. When tens of thousands of protesters took over the city central, the government responded with tear gas and violence.
A month later, the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO) formed as an umbrella group for 365 grassroots organizations including unions, indigenous, peasant, and women’s groups. ASAR-O (Asamblea de Artistas Revolucionarios/Oaxacan Assembly of Revolutionary Artists) formed in October 2006, in response to a call by APPO for every discipline to organize themselves. Since the conflict began, APPO and ASAR-O have created stencils, woodcuts, linocuts and spray painted graffiti calling for the resignation of the Governor Ruiz, for indigenous rights, women’s rights, against police abuse, etc.
This ASAR-O poster used only the youth from Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People (1830), replacing his two pistols with a raised fist and a slingshot, typical of the Oaxacan protest, where the guns were used by the government forces, not the people. Not having a single figure leading, as in the Delacroix, is also important here as the Oaxacan movement was very horizontal, not vertical or "top down."
VIII. EDVARD MUNCH, 1863-1944
34. Scream
Edvard Munch
Oil, tempera, and pastel on cardboard, 1893
National Gallery, Oslo, Norway
35. Evolve or Dissolve
"O"
Offset, 1991
Santa Monica, California
2956
Based on: Edvard Munch’s Scream
36. WAL-MART
Northland Poster Collective
Offset, 2006
Minneapolis, Minnesota
29072
Based on: Edvard Munch’s Scream
Munch’s symbolic scream may have been a response to frightening blood red sunsets seen around the world following the apocalyptic volcanic explosion of Krakatoa, thousands of miles away. Other interpretations refer to a nearby Oslo slaughterhouse and insane asylum. However this may be, this painting continues to express primal fear and alienation. The power of Scream is tapped by the three posters against different targets: the corporate behemoth Walmart, known for its exploitation of workers, the first Iraq War with its burning oil wells, and the Grand Jury.
37. End the Inquisition Stop the Grand Jury
Grand Jury Defense Office
San Francisco Community Press
Digital Print of 1972 offset original
San Francisco, California
28998
Based on: Edvard Munch’s Scream
Grand juries were often used in the 1960s and 1970s as a way for the prosecutor to engage in political intelligence gathering and to obtain indictments by presenting evidence in a closed (non-public) forum. In that forum, the prosecutor could compel witnesses to testify by granting "use immunity" to them against their will. Failure to testify could result in imprisonment, without charge, during the term of the grand jury. The grand jury was viewed as a "rubber stamp" of the prosecution.
The blatant use of grand juries for harassment of political activists and for intelligence gathering reached its height under the Nixon Justice Department. Between 1970-1973, over 100 grand juries were convened in 84 cities, subpoenaing over 1,000 activists. Activists who opposed the Viet Nam War, including students, Viet Nam veterans, the Catholic left, and the academic community as well as activists in the women's and black nationalist movements were special targets of grand juries.
In response, the National Lawyers Guild, a progressive national legal organization, created a Grand Jury Task Force to coordinate legal strategies to combat the political grand jury, and civil rights, church, and labor groups established the National Coalition to End Grand Jury Abuse. Later the Grand Jury Project was formed in New York, which published a newspaper called Quash and advocated resistance to grand jury subpoenas, and offices were established in some cities, including San Francisco, to provide legal assistance to people receiving grand jury subpoenas.
IX. KATSUSHIKA HOKUSAI, 1760-1849
38. The Great Wave off Kanagawa
Katsushika Hokusai
Woodblock print, 1832
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York
39. Stop Global Warming
Peggy White
Ultrachrome print, 2009
Kansas City, Missouri
29188
Based on: Katsushika Hokusai’s The Great Wave off Kanagawa
Hokusai’s Wave, one of the best known Japanese art works in the world, has been used in all three posters to denounce pollution of the air, land, and seas, and relate this to global warming, flooding and other ecological disasters. A striking difference between the original and all three adaptations is the removal of Mt. Fuji in the background and boats threatened by the huge wave. In the Hokusai, nature is the primary power, its threat enhanced by the claw-like tips of the wave; in the adaptations, nature is rendered even more threatening by human interference.
40. Unnatural Resources
Emek Golan
Silkscreen, 2003
Los Angeles, California
27833
Based on: Katsushika Hokusai’s The Great Wave off Kanagawa
41. Environmental Justice
Ricardo Levins Morales
Northland Poster Collective
Offset, 2006
Minneapolis, Minnesota
28980
Based on: Katsushika Hokusai’s The Great Wave off Kanagawa
X. ECOLOGY
42. The Thinker
Auguste Rodin
Bronze and marble, 1902
Musée Rodin, Paris, France
43. The Thinker...Too Late the Doer
Alan A. Tratner
Design Vectors, Inc.
Offset, 1972
United States
2214
Based on: Auguste Rodin’s The Thinker
Rodin’s The Thinker is now death caused by pollution, starvation and war, and the poster demands that we act before it is too late.
44. The Luncheon on the Grass
Edouard Manet
Oil on canvas, 1863
Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France
45. Zurück zur Natur
Back to Nature
Klaus Staeck
Offset, 1985
Heidelberg, Germany
11643
Based on: Edouard Manet’s The Luncheon on the Grass
Widely considered a key moment in the birth of modernist painting, Manet’s The Luncheon on the Grass was refused by the official Paris Salon and exhibited in the alternative “Salon of the Refused” instead. Contemporaries were shocked by the “unnatural” juxtaposition of a nude female with clothed men, despite the obvious reference to a famous Giorgione painting in the Louvre. Le Concert Champêtre which also contrasts female nudity with men in clothes. Manet’s work thus functions as an intentional appropriation to make a provocative social point, as do the works in this exhibition.
Staeck’s photomontage condemns consumerism and pollution by adding conspicuous consumer objects into the pristine landscape: a still life of Coca-Cola cans replaces Manet’s clothing and food, a contemporary food cooler, and a huge shiny Mercedes seemingly embraced by the bather.
46. The Birth of Venus
Sandro Botticelli
Tempera on canvas, 1486
Uffizi, Florence, Italy
47. Flora?
N. Zhuravlyeva
Offset, 1990
Moscow, Soviet Union
8076
Based on: Sandro Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus
This flat, outlined rendition of Botticelli’s famous Venus moves her from the traditional scallop shell, a symbol of fertility, and onto a tree stump, a sterile remainder of a clear-cut forest. This Soviet Venus, drained of color and substance, is emblematic of the lifeless landscape. The only green in the poster is a heart-shaped leaf Venus is holding over her own heart.
48. Genetic Consequences
Philip Gresham
Ultrachrome print, 2009
Kansas City, Missouri
29192
Based on: Joan Miró’s Femme et Chien Devant La Lune
Joan Miró used the pure and brilliant colors of Fauvism, influences from folkloric Catalan art, and the distortions of Cubism to transform an ordinary topic into a surrealist vision. Gresham’s poster takes Miró’s fantasy out of the original context by mimicking his color and style in the lettering, and uses the surrealist distortion to exemplify the dangers of genetic modification.
XI. ANTI-NUCLEAR
49. Drowning Girl
Roy Lichtenstein
Oil on canvas, 1963
Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York
50. Nuclear War?! There Goes My Career!
Mark Vallen
Art for a Change
Shock Battalion
Silkscreen, 1982
Los Angeles, California
9526
Based on: Roy Lichtenstein’s Drowning Girl and others of this style
Lichtenstein’s Pop Art combines the triviality of pulp romance with its stereotypical rhetoric, and the patent artifice of the Ben-day dots and dialogue bubble, characteristic of the cheap color reproduction technology of comic books. Vallen combines public fears of a nuclear war with a critique of those too self-centered to recognize their responsibility for the state of the world.
51. Marilyn Monroe
Andy Warhol
Silkscreen ink on synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 1967
Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York
52. If I Had Only Known
Artist Unknown
Offset, date unknown
Place Unknown
26115
Based on: Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe
This poster uses Warhol’s signature multi-color and multi-image technique to give a tongue-in-cheek view of the famous physicist Albert Einstein. Warhol did produce a single silkscreen portrait of Einstein (1980), not used here. A single photo of Einstein is repeated eight times. In the ninth image he sticks out his tongue, a widely disseminated photo normally seen as showing Einstein’s sense of humor. In the context of his quotation, however, he appears to be disclaiming his scientific legacy. He made statement about being a locksmith upon learning of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.
53. Zaporozhian Cossacks of Ukraine Writing a Letter to the Turkish Sultan
Illya Repin
Oil Painting, 1880-91
State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia
54. Untitled
E. Morozovskeoi; O. Lekomtyev; O. Staaikov; Green World
Offset, 1990
Kiev, Ukraine
17502
Based on: Illya Repin’s Zaporozhian Cossacks of Ukraine Writing a Letter to the Turkish Sultan
Ilya Repin, (1844-1930) was a leading Russian painter and sculptor from the Ukraine, whose realistic style and nationalistic themes were used as models for Socialist Realism in the Soviet Union. Repin’s painting, familiar to every Russian child, is based upon a 16th century incident when the Ukrainian Cossack chiefs wrote a letter rejecting the Turkish Sultan’s demand that they submit to him. The Cossacks’ letter was filled with dirty curses, wrapped around a pig's ear, and sent to the Sultan. In the 1990 adaptation, Ukrainian artists place skull-like gas masks over the Cossack faces, covering up their raucous laughter in the original, and turn mockery of a foreign power into an accusation against their own government regarding the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
The 1986 Chernobyl meltdown in the Ukraine is considered to be the worst nuclear accident in history. Yet the Soviet government, led by Mikhail Gorbachev, assured the population that they were not in danger and encouraged life as usual, thus exposing millions to extremely high levels of radiation. Contamination was recorded around the world, and continues to cause extremely high levels of cancer in the Ukraine, Belarus and Russia.
55. Christina’s World
Andrew Wyeth
Tempera on panel, 1948
Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York
56. We All Live in Harrisburg
Robert Cenedella
Offset, 1979
New York, New York
17475
Based on: Andrew Wyeth’s Christina’s World
Andrew Wyeth’s portrait of a disabled neighbor is transformed into an anti-nuclear statement by substituting cooling towers from a nuclear power plant for the farmhouse. The title refers to the worst civilian nuclear accident in U.S. history. Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station is a civilian nuclear power plant located south of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. On March 28, 1979, the plant suffered a partial meltdown. The official government claim that the accident resulted in no deaths or injuries continues to be widely disputed. One of the two reactor cores has since been removed, but the site itself has not yet been decommissioned.
57. Gauguin
Top:
Tahitian Women On the Beach
Paul Gauguin
Oil on Canvas, 1891
Musee d'Orsay, Paris, France
Bottom, Left:
Two Tahitian Women
Paul Gauguin
Oil on Canvas, 1899
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Bottom, Right:
Cruel Tales (Exotic Saying)
Paul Gauguin
Oil on Canvas, 1902
Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany
58. Nuclear Free Pacific
Wendy Black
Red Letter Community Workshop
Screenprint, 1983
Melbourne, Australia
23097
Based on: Paul Gauguin’s Tahitian Women On the Beach, Two Tahitian Women, Cruel Tales (Exotic Saying)
Paul Gauguin, celebrated French Post-Impressionist, painted exotic and romanticized view of Tahitian life in French Polynesia. Figures from three different Tahitian paintings are used to condemn French nuclear testing in the Pacific. Of the 210 French nuclear tests conducted between 1960 and1996, 193 took place in French Polynesia. Whereas Gauguin’s central figure offers us a bowl of fruit, in the poster she offers a nuclear explosion. Many Australian posters, such as this one, protest nuclear testing in the Pacific because the continent is in direct line with the fallout.
59. Te Nave Nave Fenua – Terra Deliciuse
Paul Gauguin
Oil on Canvas
1892
Ohara Museum of Art, Kurashiki Japan
60. Non Aux Essais Nucléaires
U. G. Sato
Silkscreen, 1995
Tokyo, Japan
15035
Based on: Paul Gauguin’s Te Nave Nave Fenua – Terra Deliciuse
61. Madonna and Child
Dirk Bouts (c. 1415-1475)
Oil on Panel
Bruges
Musée Royal des Beaux-Arts, Antwerp, Belgium
62. Madonna of the Bomb
Karen Fiorito
Silkcreen, 2002
Los Angeles, California
30004
Based on: Dirk Bouts’ Madonna and Child
This typical Northern Renaissance Virgin and Child, intended as an incarnation of humility and love, is here framed by bombers and a bomb replaces the Christ-child in her lap. This blasphemous transformation exposes the religious fanaticism that has generated so many wars, then and now.
XII. WOMEN
63. Grande Odalisque
Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres
Oil on canvas, 1814
Louvre, Paris, France
64. Do Women Have to Be Naked to Get into the Met. Museum?
Guerrilla Girls
Offset, 2004
New York, New York
26979
Based on: Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres’ Grande Odalisque
Since 1985, the Guerrilla Girls, an anonymous group of art world activists, have worn Gorilla masks as they employ guerrilla tactics to expose sexism, racism and corruption in art and politics. They describe themselves as …feminist masked avengers in the tradition of anonymous do-gooders like Robin Hood, Wonder Woman and Batman. Ingres’ Grande Odalisque mayrepresent a stylistic move from Neo-Classicism into Romanticism, but it continues a long tradition of countless nude women painted by men.
In 1989, the Guerrilla Girls produced the first version of this poster, critiquing the fact that the Metropolitan Museum, and museums all over the world, are filled with paintings about women but not by women. The 1989 statistics were: Less than 5% of the artists in the Modern Art Sections are women, but 85% of the nudes are female. Fifteen years later, the statistics reveal less women artists in the Met, but more representations of nude men.
65. Arnolfini Wedding
Jan van Eyck
Oil on oak panel, 1434
National Gallery, London, United Kingdom
66. One Quarter of all Violent Crime is Wife Assault
Women's Action Coalition
Digital Print of Offset, circa 1992
New York, New York
16900
Based on: Jan van Eyck’s Arnolfini Wedding
The Arnolfini Wedding portrait, unique in its era, stands as an icon of fidelity, a virtue reinforced by the terrier. The shocking contemporary statistic does violence to a sacred moment depicted in an historically “sacred” work of art. The poster makes the point that behind any outwardly harmonious union, violence may lurk, and the statistic provokes the viewer to see the hand raised in an oath of fidelity as a potential slap.
67. Dead Toreador
Edouard Manet
Oil on canvas, 1864
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
68. Death of a 20th Century Housewife
Lola Scarpitta
Digital print of oil painting, 2007
New York, New York
28804
Based on: Edouard Manet’s Dead Toreador
Repeating the pose of Manet’s Dead Toreador, the Dead Housewife has died from an overdose and the frustration of housework. The poster condemns both the alienation of women whose lives are reduced to housework and a medical system that deals with the depression resulting from this frustration and other potentially contributing causes, by prescribing addictive drugs to suppress the symptoms and camouflage their problems. Women, significantly more than men, continue to be overprescribed with mood-altering drugs. Another high art reference can be seen in the Brillo box, immortalized by Andy Warhol.
69. Venus of Willendorf
Oolitic limestone
24,000 BCE- 22,000 BCE
Vienna Natural History Museum, Vienna, Austria
70. Seeing Fat
Mariona Barkus
Offset, 1995
Los Angeles, California
16136
Based on: Venus of Willendorf
The Venus of Willendorf, the earliest generally accepted piece of prehistoric sculpture,is a prehistoric fertility figure or deity in which the full breasts and swollen abdomen were positive attributes. By placing the Willendorf statuette as her own reflection, Mariona Barkus visualizes the fear of so many women of being seen as or becoming obese.
71. Girl at Mirror
Norman Rockwell
The Saturday Evening Post, March 6, 1954 (cover)
Oil on canvas, 1954
The Norman Rockwell Museum at Stockbridge, Massachusetts
72. Girl at a Mirror
Maria Fe Nuesca
Digital Print, 2009
Los Angeles, California
29565
Based on: Norman Rockwell’s Girl at Mirror
Norman Rockwell (1894-1978) was a popular illustrator who designed covers for the Saturday Evening Post magazine for more than four decades, focusing on American daily life. In the original cover, a young girl compares herself to Jane Russell, a voluptuous film star of the 1940s and 1950s. Maria Fe Nuesca, while a student at Otis College of Art and Design, adapted the Rockwell to reflect anorexia, an ongoing epidemic in American life. Maria added a Barbie Doll, Hannah Montana case, Juicy Couture shopping bag and a supersized value pack of “Sweet’n Low,” all reflecting the girl’s obsession with appearance as defined by corporate interests. It is ironic that Jane Russell incarnates the big-busted ideal of her era, in contrast with the excessive thinness fashionable today.
XIII. RELIGION
73. The Entry of Christ into Brussels in 1889
James Ensor
Oil on canvas, 1888
Getty Museum, Los Angeles, California
74. American Fundamentalists
Joel Pelletier
Offset, 2004
Hollywood, California
28414
Based on: James Ensor’s The Entry of Christ into Brussels in 1889
Ensor’s original painting was intended as an irreverent appropriation of the traditional “Entry of Christ into Jerusalem.” Satirizing contemporary religion and politics, the painting elicited much controversy and was not exhibited publicly until 1929. Ensor’s crowd includes public, historical, and allegorical figures along with the artist's family and friends. Pelletier’s adaptation continues the religious critique, here focusing upon American Christian fundamentalists. The haloed figure of Christ is the same in both, an ignored and isolated visionary in the midst of herd-like masses. Flag-draped coffins, evoking U.S. casualties in the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars, follow him, while preceding him are assorted corporate executives, media pundits, religious leaders, politicians, government officials, conservative celebrities, and dictators.
75. Sainte Famille (The Holy Family)
William-Adolphe Bouguereau
Oil on canvas, 1863
Private Collection
76. Every 10th Jesus Is a Queer
Eric Handel
Offset, circa 1990
Los Angeles, California
3045
Based on: William-Adolphe Bouguereau’s Sainte Famille (The Holy Family)
With the 1948 release of his ground-breaking study on sexuality, Alfred Kinsey shocked the world with his findings that ten percent of men in the U.S. were homosexual. Although later studies have shown a wide range of alternative estimates, Kinsey's initial calculation has become commonly accepted in society and even embraced by many in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community as evidenced by groups such as the The Ten Percent Society,a North Dakota gay rights organization, and Ten Percent, a San Francisco magazine.
By incorporating this statistic into Bouguereau’s traditional religious portrait, Handel challenges the understanding of Christian views on homosexuality. Bouguereau’s idyllic depiction of the affectionate infants Jesus and John the Baptist in the loving embrace of the Virgin Mary evoke Christ's and Mary's love and compassion for all humanity, including the ten percent who may be gay or lesbian. The peacefulness of the scene emphasizes the stark contrast between the great benevolence and love expressed by Christ in the Bible and the hatred and violence directed towards the LGBT community that some attempt to justify with Christian ideology.
XIV. IMMIGRATION AND FORCED RELOCATION
77. Expulsion From Paradise
Masaccio
Fresco, 1423
Brancacci Chapel
Church of Santa Maria del Carmine
Florence, Italy
78. WHO'S NEXT?
Bojan Bahic
Sanda Hnatjuk Bahic
Art Publishing
Digital print of 1994 offset original
Bosnia‑Herzegovina
29093
Based on: Masaccio’s Expulsion From Paradise
The trauma of Masaccio’s Adam and Eve as they are expelledfrom the Garden of Eden, is a poignant precedent for the expulsion of the Bosnians by Serbian forces during the siege of Sarajevo (1992-1996)—the longest siege of a capital city in the history of modern warfare. Designed as a cover illustration for the popular Sarajevo news magazine Dani, the phrase Who’s Next? implies that the Bosnian refugees will not be the last to suffer from war and forced relocation. The shame of Adam and Eve, so strikingly evoked by Masaccio, is also the shame of the world’s failure to prevent and deal with the causes of displacement.
79. Calavera Oaxaqueña
José Guadalupe Posada (c. 1852-1913)
Zinc relief etching
Mexico
80. Undocumented Citizens
Carlos Cazares
Ultrachrome print, 2009
Kansas City, Missouri
29190
Based on: José Guadalupe Posada’s Calavera Oaxaqueña
This contemporary immigrant rights poster uses José Guadalupe Posada’s Calavera Oaxaqueña (circa 1903) to demand open borders and an end to discrimination against immigrants. The original print has an armed peasant from Oaxaca, the most culturally diverse state in Mexico. Cazares may have used Posada’s reference to Oaxaca in light of ongoing Mexican governmental repression against its indigenous populations. This repression has caused significant migration, including into the U.S. The bloody machete in both designs suggests resistance.
XV. NEW WORLD ORDERS
81. Last Judgment
Michelangelo
Fresco, 1543-1541
Sistine Chapel, Vatican City
82. Recovery and Cooperation
Giuseppe Croce
European Recovery Program
Lithograph, 1950
Rotterdam, Netherlands
28552
Based on: Michelangelo’s Last Judgement
The Marshall Plan (officially the European Recovery
Program, ERP) was the primary U.S. plan for rebuilding Western
Europe and countering communism after World War II. The initiative, named
after Secretary of State George Marshall, ran from 1948-1952 and helped rebuild
the economies of Western Europe in the American interest. In the Fall
of 1950, a poster contest was held throughout Europe to promote the Marshall
Plan. Over 10,000 pieces were submitted. 25 winning designs were selected
by an international jury, and this poster is the fourth prize winner. The
construction in the foreground refers to economic recovery and the flags identify
the European nations involved. The two figures from Michelangelo’s Last
Judgment show cooperation.
The Sistine Chapel Last Judgment (1535-1541) depicts the saved ascending to heaven and the damned descending into hell. Croce combines two separate figures from the Last Judgment and has one holding the hand of the other, as if pulling him up, giving a “helping hand” as was the intent of the Marshall Plan.
83. Calavera de la Catrina
José Guadalupe Posada
Zinc etching, 1913
Mexico
84. USA 200 Jahre Freiheit Und Gerechitigkeit (1776-1976)
USA 200 Years of Freedom and Human Rights
Ernst Volland
Offset, 1976
Germany
19681
Based on: José Guadalupe Posada’s Calavera de la Catrina
Posada’s famous Calaveras or “living skeletons”are used in many different artistic manifestations ranging from celebrating the Mexican Day of the Dead holiday to indicting injustice. In this poster, the German activist and political cartoonist, Ernst Volland, combines two separate calaveras to depict a skeletal couple. The female is a famous Posada figure who has been used by many artists, including Diego Rivera in his Alameda Park Mural in Mexico City. Expensively dressed, the calaveras remind us that no matter how rich or powerful one is, death comes to everyone. This poster derides America’s claim to represent 200 years of freedom and human rights, and Volland uses the calaveras to represent the results of U.S. foreign policy.
85. Vitruvian Man
Leonardo da Vinci
Vellum, 1485
Accademia, Venice, Italy
86. Capitalismo: Denial of Human Rights
Rafael Enriquez
Organización de Solidaridad de los Pueblos de Africa, Asia y América Latina (OSPAAAL)
Offset, 1977
La Habana, Cuba
23264
Based on: Leonardo da Vinci ‘s Vitruvian Man
This Cuban poster was issued by the Organization in Solidarity with the Peoples of Africa, Asia and Latin America (OSPAAAL), the primary Cuban agency supporting popular struggles throughout the world. Based on the iconic Vitruvian Man, a drawing by Leonardo da Vinci representing ideal anatomical proportions, the OSPAAAL version transforms the man into a prisoner with an eagle, symbol of U.S. Imperialism, hovering above him. Leonardo’s ideal geometric proportions of the circle and square are disrupted by the hanging chains and a list of social problems. This poster challenges the ideological equation of capitalism with personal freedom.
87. A Bigger Splash
David Hockney
Acrylic on canvas, 1967
Private Collection
88. Freiheit statt Sozialismus
F. K. Waechter
Die Grünen (Political party)
Offset, circa 1980‑1995
Germany
28857
Based on: David Hockney’s A Bigger Splash
The harmonious composition of David Hockney’s signature California swimming pool paintings, in particular his A Bigger Splash, is desecrated by adding a defecating figure on the diving board and the mocking title Freedom instead of Socialism. F.K. Waechter, was a German cartoonist and children’s book author.
The German Green Party, which has been elected to the German Parliament since 1983, campaigns against environmental pollution, nuclear energy, and abuse of animals. In this poster they are challenging the popular corporate conception that the “freedom” of the “free market” includes the freedom to pollute.
89. The Sower
Jean-Francois Millet
Oil on canvas, 1850
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts
90. The Aluminum Harvester
Jos Sances
Digital Print of 1992 silkscreen original
Berkeley, California
28536
Based on: Jean-Francois Millet’sThe Sower
Millet’s pastoral painting, intending to highlight the dignity of the peasant and of his harsh labor, was criticized as savage, violent, and potentially socialistic when displayed at the Paris Salon of 1850. The peasant, although economically central to the society, was politically marginalized. Sances’ variation focuses on a contemporary marginalized type, who, rather than sowing to create food, collects or “harvests” the waste of the consumer society. The pair of oxen in Millet’s background, are transformed into an individual hauling two shopping carts, common portable storage for the homeless. Instead of the peasant productively driving oxen, the homeless person is pulling the carts away from the housing denied them.
91. Washington Crossing the Delaware
Emanuel Leutze
Oil on canvas,1851
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York
92. Patriot Axe
Sheila Pinkel
Digital Print, 2008
Los Angeles, California
28531
Based on: Emanuel Leutze’s Washington Crossing the Delaware
Just 45 days after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the U.S., Congress passed the USA PATRIOT Act with virtually no debate. The contrived acronym stands for Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001. Spear-headed by President George W. Bush, the Patriot Act and subsequent legislation under the umbrella of “homeland security” limited many constitutionally protected freedoms and gave the government the power to access citizens’ records, tap their phones and email, and enter their homes without probable cause, without warrants, and without notification.
In response, Sheila Pinkel used Emanuel Leutze’s patriotic icon, where a key moment of the American Revolution is dramatically—if unrealistically—depicted, 75 years after the 1776 event. German-born Leutze grew up in the U.S. and returned to Germany as an adult. He conceived the idea for this huge painting (12 feet x 21 feet) during the European Revolutions of 1848, hoping to encourage Europe's liberal reformers through the example of the American Revolution. Where Leutze chose the subject to inspire revolution, Pinkel lambasts the Patriot Acts by showing it as an axe against our constitutional rights, which the founding fathers established.
93. Dancers Practicing at the Barre
Edgar Degas
Pastel on paper, 1877
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
94. Brought to you by Philip Morris
Joan Roelofs
Digital Print, 2008
Keene, New Hampshire
29119
Based on: Edgar Degas’s Dancers Practicing at the Barre
Degas’ signature ballerinas epitomize high art and culture. Contemporary culture, including ballet, art exhibitions, public television, and sporting events, increasingly depends upon corporate sponsorship. Philip Morris is a frequent and prominent underwriter in order to deflect attention from their role as a major producer of a proven carcinogen. In 2002, Philip Morris changed its name to Altria. Many critics have called this a transparent attempt to clean up the company’s image. That many ballet dancers smoke, despite the proven health risks, is an additional irony.
95. Treachery of Images
René Magritte
Oil on canvas, 1928-29
Los Angeles Country Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California
96. Ceci N'est Pas Une Comic
Peter Kuper
Offset, 2008
New York, New York
29078
Based on: René Magritte’s Treachery of Images
Rene Magritte’s Treachery of Images (This is Not a Pipe) plays on the contradiction between what you see (image) against what you read (words). Peter Kuper extends the idea of contradiction from the realm of art to the political by showing how reality is consistently denied by government lies and propaganda.
97. The Capitalist Dinner
Diego Rivera
Fresco, 1923-26
Ministry of Education Building, Mexico City, Mexico
98. What's in Their Wallet?
Laurie Selleck
digital print
Offset, 2009
29780
Based on: Diego Rivera’s The Capitalist Dinner
Former Vice President Dick Cheney replaces the presiding diner in Diego Rivera's Capitalist Dinner (La Cena Capitalista). The title parodies the slogan What's in your wallet? used in television commercials first aired by Capital One in 2005 to promote their credit card. The tattoo added to the woman’s arm refers to scandalously huge bonuses—$165 million—paid by insurance giant AIG to its executives following the $173 billion in Federal bailouts to prevent its collapse. The U.S. Congressional seal is added to the food sack.
99. The Gleaners
Jean-Francois Millet
Oil on canvas, 1857
Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France
100. Seasons Greetings
Hadas Reshef
Digital Print, 2007
Tel Aviv, Israel
30003
Based on: Jean-Francois Millet’s The Gleaners
Hadas Reshef, an Israeli artist, frequently alters well-known works of art. Season’s Greetings a socialist feminist alteration of Millet’s The Gleaners, was included in a 2007 Tel Aviv art sale to support efforts to find jobs for Arab women in agriculture. The image affirms the project’s mission which is not to provide charity, but to support the active entry of women into the work cycle. Reshef adds additional meaning to her piece by stating that, In this new rendering, work has raised the women from a situation of surrender and oppression to a struggle for dignity. The women are upright and strengthened, they are fighting women, pushed forward about a hundred years into a poster, as in Soviet socialist realism. But they aren't complete. Absence is present. The remains of the past are still there, eternal.
101. Lion in Ancient Persian Frieze from Darius I Palace
Artist Unknown
Glazed stone brick, 510 B.C.
Louvre, Paris, France
102. Iran [Mickey]
Istvan Orosz
Digital Print of 2007 original
Hungary
29097
Based on: Lion in Ancient Persian Frieze from Darius I Palace
Although the shadow of Mickey Mouse, symbol of U.S. culture, admonishes the Persian lion, the roaring sculpted lion, symbol of Iran’s proud and ancient civilization, towers menacingly over Mickey. The lion, seen all over the art and architecture of ancient Iran, represents a special breed found only in Iran and extinct since the last was killed by a British hunter in the 19th century. The lion was added to the national flag during the reign of the Shah (1964-1979) but removed under the Islamic Republic. The allegorical cat and mouse conflict resonates here as Iranians sometimes refer to Iran as the cat, both because of the lion, and because the geographic shape of the country resembles a cat.