May 25, 2017 - Sale 2449

Sale 2449 - Lot 211

Price Realized: $ 1,250
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,000
BEN SHAHN (1898-1969) FOR ALL THESE RIGHTS WE'VE JUST BEGUN TO FIGHT / REGISTER - VOTE. 1946.
28 3/4x38 1/2 inches, 73x97 3/4 cm. L.I.P. & B.A., New York.
Condition A-: expertly-repaired tears and creases along vertical and horizontal folds; minor restored loss in image.
In 1943, the Council of Industrial Organizations created the Political Action Committee in order to "protect the political rights of the working man, the returning service man, the farmer, and the small-business man" (Prescott p. 124). In 1944, the PAC worked towards registering union voters with an eye to the national elections of that year. In his posters, Shahn primarily appealed to farmers and factory workers, playing to their fears of hunger, unemployment, inflation and war. According to Shahn's wife Bernarda, the title of this poster was taken from a speech by Franklin D. Roosevelt, and here "this demonstration of union activity . . . is coupled with the exhortative message REGISTER - VOTE, which is repeated on all the CIO posters of this series" (Prescott p. 131). Prescott 155, Images of an Era 4, Takashimaya 235.