The Art of Protest

More than 100 posters chronicling the origins and history of protest art rendered for the United Farm Workers movement of the 1960s and ‘70s are on display at the Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research.

Titled “Viva La Huelga (Long Live the Strike),” the exhibit traces the growth of such art from the mid-20th Century labor movement in Mexico to the posters the UFW used to publicize its historic grape boycott of the ‘60s and ‘70s called to end the use of pesticides dangerous to farm workers.

In an effort to raise public awareness of the UFW movement, artists designed scores of posters that depicted the deadly consequences of pesticides on grape-pickers. In one poster, for example, a bunch of grapes is gradually transformed into a skeleton. Many also bear the image of the Farm Workers’ leader, Cesar Chavez.

“Art is always central to any successful movement for social change,” said Carol Wells of the Center for the Study of Political Graphics, which is sponsoring the show.

Wells said the tradition that gave rise to the UFW posters played a role in the creation of more recent protest art, such as anti-Proposition 187 placards last fall.

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“Viva La Huelga (Long Live the Strike),” which runs through June 30, is open between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday at the library, 6120 S. Vermont Ave. Information: (213) 653-6991.