?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 4,000 - $ 6,000
LEO LIONNI (1910-1999) KEEP 'EM ROLLING! Group of 4 posters. 1941. Each approximately 40x29 inches, 102x75 cm. U.S. Government Printing Office. Conditions vary, generally B+: restoration and repaired tears at edges; vertical and horizontal folds. Framed. Until the attack on Pearl Harbor, America's involvement in World War II consisted of a ramped up industrial production of war material for the embattled Allied nations. Congress passed the Lend-Lease Act on March 11, 1941. Although not a military act, it eliminated the possibility that America would remain neutral during the conflict. These exceptional, patriotic work incentive posters were issued by the Office of Emergency Management right on the cusp of America's entry into the Second World War. They were equally as efficient during the few official months of Lend-Lease as they were after America's official declaration of war. "Lionni [along with Herbert Matter, Lester Beall and Milton Ackoff] carried photographic poster illustration to new heights of inventiveness. [He was] able to bring the clean asymmetry of Bauhaus design into everyday life in this country long before Gropius and Mies Van der Rohe were given an opportunity to do so in architecture." (Word & Image p. 62). "War preparedness required the quickest, largest buildup in history, triggering numerous 'production incentive' posters . . . [These four posters] each used the same layout: the flag's blue field contained a photograph of home front workers, and the product of their labor was shown on the war front, amidst red and white stripes serving as road, sky or sea lanes. With the war still an abstraction for most Americans, these posters connected what happened 'here' and 'over there.' " (Resnick p. 68). Born in Holland, Lionni grew up in Italy. He moved to Philadelphia in 1939, and found employment with the advertising firm N. W. Ayer. By 1948 he had become Art Director for Fortune magazine (a position he held until 1960). His advertising credits include work for Olivetti typewriters, Chrysler and Ford. Resnick 38, Word & Image p. 90, Modern Poster 196.
