BEN SHAHN (1898-1969) WE WANT PEACE / REGISTER VOTE. 1946. 26 7/8x41 1/2 inches, 77x105 cm. Condition B+: sharp vertical and horizontal folds; restored loss and restoration along top right margin and corner; repaired tear through left margin, affecting image. 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 excercise one's right to vote." (Prescott p. 132). Prescott 157, Images of an Era 5.
