The Art of the War Poster—an Index
of American Taste

PEPPINO G. MANGRAVITE
 

r
 

(^ If ^ HE posters produced by warring nations would make
an interesting exhibition of popular taste in art. Such an
exhibition would reveal the level of visual response of
different peoples to pictorial images. It would also disclose the
degree of compromise made between the concepts of the individ¬
ualistic artist and governmental and hieratic dicta in arriving at
the creation of a popular image forceful enough to sway and
convince: an image of simple candor and great persuasion.

That is the scope and function of the war poster. It is an in¬
forming or warning device quickly apprehended by the percep¬
tive faculties. But which faculties: the mind, the visual eye, or
both?

Popular visual symbols and images are apprehended or "read"
differently in each nation. The extent of the visual readability is
culturally determined. Traditional superstitions, rehgious pre¬
cepts, and visual prohibitions have more often than not shaped the
syntax of individual visual perception. Posters made for the first
and second World Wars disclose much of national visual habits.
I know this, because I participated in the making of posters during
the two world wars.

Recently I went to Butler Library to refresh my memory of the
device used in war posters. There, neatly stacked in metal drawers,
in one of those fenced-in attic archives of the University, I "read"
a few hundred posters in their native visual languages. Most of
them are in color, a few in black and white. They were designed
for their respective countries by English, French, German,
Canadian, and South and North American artists. For the purpose
of this brief report, I concentrated most of my attention on the