AU will display part of its permanent collection of WWII posters. (Photo: Michael Haynes)
On Jan. 21, the Jessie. C. Wilson Galleries will open an exhibition of over 30 World War II posters that will be on display through Feb. 18. The exhibition offers students and faculty a unique glimpse into an important historical period as well as the development of the techniques of an influential art form. An opening reception for the posters will take place in the gallery on Jan. 21 from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.
The posters on display are selected from AU’s permanent collection of about 50 WWII propaganda posters. They were donated shortly after the 50th anniversary of the war by Kathleen Dugan, an AU professor and painter. Kathleen’s grandmother, Mary Dugan, the wife of the foreman at Cummins Engine Factory, preserved the posters at the factory and kept them in storage.
Because of its history, the collection contains many posters on the theme of production, designed to urge factory workers to produce more goods necessary to the war effort. Several posters featured the phrase “More production” integrated with images of workers or soldiers in need. Others used lines like “Make haste safely” or “Men Working Together” to encourage hard work in war labor. One poster used an image of a worker assembling a bomb with the phrase “Bundles for Berlin,” while another showed a worker with the caption “Idle hands work for Hitler.”
Another common theme in the posters was conservation. These pieces encouraged citizens to conserve their house wares, rubber tires, and appliances in order to lessen the need for civilian products and increase the resources available for the war effort. Slogans like “Defense needs rubber” or “Save your tires” showed everyday people helping the war and their soldiers, while a more dramatic poster displayed a picture of a sinking German ship captioned with the phrase, “Your scrap brought it down.”
The exhibition features a few examples of how women were used in the propaganda, both as factory workers and as emotional appeals. One poster showed a woman dressed in a skirt and apron assembling war products in a factory with the phrase “Women in the war—we can’t win without them,” while others used images of widows to appeal to the sympathy of others: they gave a husband—what can you give?
The number of propaganda posters attests to the need they filled during WWII, when America had to gear up for war quickly following Pearl Harbor. The posters work to enlist public support for the war as well as support for specific industries and occupations the war effort required. The Office of War Information hired artists and produced propaganda posters, as well as films. Part of the purpose of the collection is to show the impact these artists had during and after the war.
“Another focus of the show is for us to highlight the role of the visual artist in helping to shape history,” said Professor Kevin Rudynski, chair of the art department. “We’re showing this with the idea in mind that this is one of the ways that the visual arts served the war.”
The posters are interesting for their artistic technique as well as their historical value. The exhibition will feature four important artists and their contributions to the war effort and to art—Jean Carlu, Lester Beall, Ben Schan and Norman Rockwell.
“Those four are important not just because of their popularity at the time, but because they were all really fine artists,” said Tai Lipan, director of Wilson Galleries.
The gallery houses two examples of Rockwell’s work. In the first, a poster that looks like it was cut from The Saturday Evening Post shows a mother and father tucking their child into bed with the phrase, “Ours . . . to fight for freedom from fear” above and below it. The second shows a soldier running out of ammunition with the caption, “Let’s give him Enough and On Time.”
The other featured posters show how early ways of representing type and image became more complex and effective.
“You can see the artist starting to bridge that, the ways they’re trying to combine type and imagery,” said Lipan, pointing out how Carlu uses the density and form of his images to underline the message of the poster. Another poster by Carlu shows a soldier firing a machine gun, but the image transitions from a pictorial view of the man to an abstract representation of the bullets he fires.
“It helps us relate the pictures and the shapes together,” said Lipan of the poster, which reads “Give ‘em both barrels.”
The work of the four featured artists is also reflective of some of the major movements in art at the time, such as cubism.
“These posters have strong, powerful graphics to get the message across and be as compelling as they can be, because they’re trying to call people to action,” said Rudynski.
“Even though it’s being presented through a gallery and a visual arts program, there are plenty of reasons for other people to have an interest in these things,” said Rudynski, citing the exhibition’s appeal to veterans, historians, and those interested in the mass medium of the poster. “That opens it up to a lot of different ways to engage them.”
