Contra Cocaine.
(N.p. 1988). Offset lithographic poster. Conal, a self-described guerrilla poster artist, here captures conflation under the Reagan Administration of hyper-militarization, Nicaraguan Contras, and the War on Drugs. Against a camouflage background, a suited skeleton gazes out, perhaps as if a dehumanized victim, perhaps as if a soulless political perpetrator. The ambivalence of the foregrounded figure and the ironic pairing of "Contra" and "Cocaine" encapsulate the larger, painful ironies of the late 1980's. Just as Nancy Reagan was championing her "Just Say No" campaign and crack cocaine was ravaging the streets of Conal's Los Angeles, the United States government was funding the Contra rebels in Nicaragua, hoping to push them into a ruling position sympathetic to the United States. The Contras, however, trafficked cocaine. Conal, outraged at the abuse of political power in the name of representative democracy, began a campaign of turning satirical oil portraits into street posters like this one. He then enlisted an army of fellow poster advocates to disseminate the jarring images wherever they could.
Poster shows no discernible signs of having been mounted. General light creasing and edgewear, some tanning to white areas, and few stains to rear. Very good. Framed, measuring 31 1/4 by 22 3/4 inches. Item #31425
Price: $750.00