The Occupy movement has been quiet over the winter, but now the better weather is coming in and with a summer’s election campaigning in front of us we can expect a rise in events, protests and camps. Some seem more ambitious than others.
The next big event planned is a Global Strike scheduled for May 1st a traditional left wing celebration of the working man and his rights, and the posters for M1GS as they style it, are circulating already. They hope to have events in 125 United States cities and more across the world.
Now as I said before here the quality of the artwork being produced by a new generation of graphic artists and painters is quite astonishing. This stuff is re-defining the campaign poster across the board. It will be the artistic signature style for the decade and for the Credit Crisis itself. When historians look back to this crisis they will reference it with these posters. This season will simply build on this.
Now the poster above is just another example. Think the style looks familiar? Well you would not be wrong. It’s by Erik Drooker an established figure in the left wing art world who is providing his talent for the cause. He has done book illustration too and the more famous of these are “Flood:A Novel” a tale of New York, and “Howl”. I suspect though you might though be more familiar with his classic covers for New Yorker, like say, the one below.
A slew of other posters are available in a variety of languages. The one below is Hebrew. Mind you I don’t envy the reception any occupy Jerusalem camp is likely to find.
Copyright David Macadam 2012
gel said:
love the posters – can they be bought do you know?
David Macadam said:
Hi! Thanks for the interest! Actually you dont need to buy any of these as the artists have made them available pro bonum for the cause. The ones by Dooker are at http://www.gstrike.org but his New Yorker cover stuff will not be included.
Others are at:- occupywallst.org
But the very best place where there is a vast selection (very varied – bound to be something for you) is at occupytogether.org – and that IS free to download and print off. Check out the link below:-
http://www.occupytogether.org/downloadable-posters/
Enjoy
jamesb said:
The Posters are GREAT!
Don in Massachusetts said:
Love the art work on the posters. go on…
David Macadam said:
Well Don, it seems The Oligarch Kings has beaten the BBC – again! Tonight on BBC 2’s Newsnight, Paul Mason will be doing a film on “The Art of Occupy”.
The link is here:- http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01h7mnv/Newsnight_30_04_2012/ As “Newsnight” is a magazine format with various issues being discussed if you just want Paul’s film skip up to 38 minutes in.
Me? cant wait – its on the minder already.
Occupy’s artistic signature has several commonalities. It rejects the sterile commercialism of contemporary art typified by acres of washed walls or heaps of aggregate dumped on a gallery floor as burokunst, or even as Miroesque kintergartenkunst for a return to 1920’s advertising with its delight in skilled draftmanship and craft, for a return to figurative art with more than a nod to the graphic novel. A movement that values style linked to social purpose and more than a hint of 1930’s Soviet poster art.
It really is the new thing in art. So…..if you see any originals around for the buying now would be time to invest. ( Agghh I’ve turned capitalist :))
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