War Posters commemorate past at IU Art Museum

The main theme of the IU Art Museum’s newest gallery is that a work of art might have the power to spark a change in one’s political, social or cultural ideology, especially in times of war and revolution.

The exhibit, titled “The Graphics of Revolution and War: Iranian Poster Arts,” shows images from the Islamic Revolution and Iran-Iraq War that intend to create such change, according to the exhibit guide.

Iranian Poster Arts will be on display until Dec. 18.

Perhaps more than any other moment in recent history, posters served as powerful modalities for mobilization and communication during these times, Assistant Curator Elizabeth Rauh said.

The exhibit’s guest curator is Professor Christiane Gruber of the University of Michigan. She was present Friday at the exhibit’s opening ceremony and gave a lecture about the art’s history.

“As far as I know, this is the first major showing of this art in the United States,” Gruber said.

These posters follow a period of time in which anti-government protestors in Iran sought to move and inspire those around them, according to the exhibit guide.

“One thing remains clear,” Gruber said. “All of these uprisings relied on mass and social media to disseminate a number of messages that state particular ideological messages in the name of freedom.”

The exhibit contains a wide variety of posters. Some are violently graphic, depicting
the deaths of rebels and other revolutionary leaders. Others are humorous, such as

“The Corrupt Carter,” a 1979 caricature of former President Jimmy Carter.    
Gruber’s lecture told the story of years of protest in Iran. She said she believes the posters acted as a reminder of the reasons to fight toward revolution.

“It was not just about religion,” Gruber said. ”It was about nationality and a desire to survive.”

The posters were lent to the art museum by the Special Collections Research Center of the University of Chicago Library. The event is part of IU’s “Themester 2011: Making War, Making Peace.”

“Iranian posters historicized events as they unfolded, commemorating and preserving the recent past, the ever-changing present and the unknown future,” Rauh said.