Saturday, January 10, 2015

Searching for the artist who made this poster... 1968 at Iowa City



Two days ago when I cleaned up my rental house and found a extremely large poster (72" x 38") in the attic. On the back it was written Anti-Vietnam War poster, 1968, Iowa City. It looked like fresh out of floor model etching press printing machine 47 years ago, you can see clearly the reflected ink on the covered paper. The method looks like cardboard cutting etching, the method I have learned back to my printmaking class in college days.

However, the detail etching and intriguing graphics are too skillful to be consider as ordinary anti-war poster. The graphic and composition are quiet fascinating and representative; it symbolized with certain meanings that required an interpretation. The rental house used to belong to a History professor Dr. Charles J Ebel who passed away two years ago. He was enrolled in University of Iowa and received Ph.D. in Ancient History in 1970. So my assumption the poster was designed by an artist at University of Iowa in 1968 for the protest of the anti-war at home event.

I need expert to give me an idea about this poster. Who is the artist and any significant about the artist? I look through anti-war poster online but nothing is as big as this one. Is any museum or gallery collecting things like this? If only the walls could talk, I would like to know some history about this poster.