Moratorium

Copied Carlos Irizarry, Moratorium, 1969, screenprint, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment, 2013.24.1A-B, © 1969, Carlos Irizarry

Artwork Details

Title
Moratorium
Artist
Assistants
Printer
Date
1969
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
A (image): 21 1⁄2 x 27 3⁄4 in. (54.6 x 70.5 cm) B (image): 21 3⁄8 x 28 3⁄8 in. (54.3 x 72.1 cm)
Copyright
© 1969, Carlos Irizarry
Credit Line
Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment
Mediums Description
screenprint
Classifications
Keywords
  • Allegory — civic — rebellion
  • Occupation — political — president
Object Number
2013.24.1A-B
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/2013.24.1A-B

Artwork Description

The density of images in Moratorium conveys the ubiquitous presence of the Vietnam War in everyday life. Here Irizarry appropriated photographs and text from media sources. Dominating the left side is a likeness of Vice President Spiro Agnew, famous for his dismissal of antiwar intellectuals as "impudent snobs," next to an image of a large antiwar protest. President Richard Nixon's face appears below, tinted orange and repeated in a pop-style grid. Irizarry also quotes antiwar works by other artists: Jasper Johns's 1969 Moratorium flag poster and Picasso's 1937 painting Guernica. Picasso's painting--condemning the Nazi bombing of Spanish civilians--had been on loan in New York since the 1940s, and Vietnam War-era activists embraced it as an emblem of war resistance.

Exhibitions

Media - 2011.12 - SAAM-2011.12_1 - 77591
Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art
October 24, 2013–March 2, 2014
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art presents the rich and varied contributions of Latino artists in the United States since the mid-twentieth century, when the concept of a collective Latino identity began to emerge. The exhibition is drawn entirely from the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s pioneering collection of Latino art. It explores how Latino artists shaped the artistic movements of their day and recalibrated key themes in American art and culture.