BEN SHAHN (1898-1969) WE WANT PEACE / REGISTER - VOTE. 1946. 41 1/4x26 3/4 inches, 105x68 cm. L.I.P. & B.A., New York. Condition B+: unobtrusive vertical and horizontal folds; pin holes in margins and corners. Framed. Based on a painting entitled Hunger, this image was "used by the CIO in a voter registration drive. [And] it represents, perhaps, the best of Shahn's poster work. One cannot soon erase the memory of the hollow-eyed young face begging for peace. Nowhere is Shahn's genius for drawing more evident than in the thrust of the pleading hand . . . Using the image of this child in the context of an election campaign seems to say that in a democracy the first step toward healing the ravages of war is to exercise one's right to vote" (Prescott p. 132). Prescott 157, Images of an Era 5, Takashimaya 238.
