No More.
1977. Original conté pencil illustration, signed by the artist, Bob Ziering, depicting a Black youth breaking a chain, under which reads “No More” in block letters. The youth’s hands are drawn together as a single line, connected by a square border that immediately draws the eye to the desperate strength of their gesture and the expression of protest below them. Ziering produced this maquette for an anti-apartheid poster contest held in 1976/1977 by the American Committee on Africa, which, in cooperation with the UN Centre Against Apartheid, published the winners in calendars for the years 1978/1979. This piece was featured on the page for December 1978.
The global struggle against apartheid, which took on the forms of popular protest, economic embargoes, and governmental and non-governmental boycotts, was perhaps the largest of its kind against such aggressive and open racial discrimination. The pain apparent in Ziering’s maquette reflects not only the futility of many of these efforts—most were well-intentioned but too commercial or token to tackle the realities of violence and systemic disenfranchisement suffered by South Africans of color—but also the lasting history of racial discrimination both before and after apartheid’s institution. The calendar project for which this maquette was created errs perhaps towards the commercial, but its goal to raise awareness and bridge art and statement was successful. Fine. Framed. (35 by 26 1/4 in.). Item #30134
Price: $2,000.00