Stop H Bomb Tests!
Artist
Ben Shahn
United States, 1898 - 1969
Date1960
MediumSilkscreen
Dimensions40 1/2 x 28 1/2 in. (102.9 x 72.4 cm)
ClassificationsPoster
Credit LinePoster House Permanent Collection
Object numberPH.7909
DescriptionKnown today as Peace Action, the National Committee for a SANE Nuclear Policy was founded in November 1957 to educate Americans on the dangers of nuclear weapons testing and amplify their concerns. Within six months, it had more than 130 chapters and 25,000 members. By May 1960, the group was the largest peace-focused organization in the United States, with numerous prominent advocates, including Bertrand Russell and Martin Luther King, Jr.
Ben Shahn, one of the most notable American artists of the time, created this silkscreen poster as both a limited-edition print to raise funds for SANE and as part of a guerilla propaganda campaign (this example is the latter variant). The State Department’s dismissive response to SANE’s advertising campaign was that it was “really inviting us to a strategic surrender which would lead to the U.S. being colonized by the population hordes of China.”
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