Topics : ART : Political Statements

The poster depicts a stunning sight: an unarmed man confronting a tank in Tian An Men Square during the Chinese crackdown on democracy in 1989. The Chinese government never acknowledged the number of people killed and the names of those wounded or imprisoned--or identified the man who defied the tank.

In this case, the message on the poster doesn’t seem necessary though it’s hard to ignore its power: “One Man standing against madness kindles anew the sparks of freedom and elevates the spirit of Man. How can we not stand with him?”

That is one of the 15,000 domestic and international political posters that Venice resident Carol Wells has collected through the Center for the Study of Political Graphics, the West Hollywood nonprofit organization she founded five years ago.

At the center, she collects, preserves, documents and circulates the poster art among schools, universities and galleries nationwide.

Each poster makes a statement about human struggle. With pictures and few words, the posters track social and political history.

Wells staunchly believes that any image, in the proper context, can help educate people. “By preserving graphic legacies of historical movements for the next generation you provide an accessible link to the suffering of all people. . . . Putting a poster of Goodman, Schwerner and Chaney--two Jews and an African American who died together in the ‘60s for the same (civil rights) cause--next to posters of anti-Semitism and white supremacy is making a powerful connection.”

The vast majority of the posters in the collection have been donated by “people (who) know that we’re the only organization which will use them in the same spirit and meaning they (were) made: to create a better life,” Wells said from her office at the center, which is supported by grants and individual donations.

The posters in the collection date to 1905. Although many are worth thousands of dollars, they are never sold. Unlike most library collections, these posters are often loaned and are readily available for viewing.

The majority of the posters were inspired by American politics and concerns--women’s rights, the labor movement, AIDS, peace movement and Latino and African-American issues.

In December, 1990, Wells proposed doing an exhibition of posters having to do with American intervention in foreign countries.

The following month, the Persian Gulf War began. She scrambled for posters.

“It happened so fast. The ultimatum date to Iraq (to get out of Kuwait) was Jan. 15, 1991. Six days after the bombing started we had 30 posters from high school students and a half-dozen from professionals. The show was titled ‘The Price of Intervention From the Korean War to the Gulf War.’ The point was that each of these wars failed in its publicly stated goal. We tried to make connections for people,” she said.

The exhibit received a great deal of media coverage because there was so little opposition to the war. “Dissent,” said Wells, “is central to patriotism.”

Wells is no stranger to dissent herself.

In 1968, she found it hard to make a connection between her studies--her major was social work--and her political activities at UCLA, where she participated in sit-ins for civil rights and against the Vietnam War.

“I went to Alaska--the last frontier, a place totally out of character with my life. I was a pacifist and here I am in a place where disputes were solved by gunfights.”

Wells lived in a trailer and supported herself by holding down a combination of jobs like commercial fisher, folk singer, portrait painter and bartender. It was during her bar-tending days that she witnessed the gunfights.

She eventually returned to UCLA and entered graduate school. The day she registered for classes in 1970, four students at Kent State were slain by National Guardsmen during an anti-war protest, sharpening public opposition to U.S. involvement in Vietnam.

Wells had trouble reconciling why she was studying 11th- and 12th-Century French architecture while America was shooting its young.

Yet it wasn’t until she went to Nicaragua in 1981 that she saw how her two passions, art and politics, could be connected through poster art--seeing the political posters associated with the Sandinista revolution made the connection obvious to her.

“As soon as I realized what I wanted to do, it made no sense to wait two years to finish my dissertation. UCLA taught me that all art is political,” she said.

Center for the Study of Political Graphics is at 8124 W. 3rd St., West Hollywood. Information: (213) 653-4662.