"Can't You Hear Me?" Student Strike Protest Poster
Chicago: Columbia Collective, 1970
Screenprint in red and white on paper. 27½ x 22 inches
 
Produced in the aftermath of the Kent State shootings and amid the expansion of the Vietnam War into Cambodia, this striking screenprint was created by the Columbia Collective, a group of student artists at Columbia College Chicago. Printed in vivid red and white, the composition features the same haunting photographic image of a wounded civilian reaching forward in anguish, accompanied by the stark declaration, "can't you hear me? we are striking, the killing must stop!" The dramatic reduction of the image to two colors heightens its emotional immediacy and reflects the urgency of the nationwide student strike movement that swept American campuses in the spring of 1970.
 
One of a series of antiwar posters produced by the Columbia Collective, the work exemplifies the bold graphic language of protest art during the Vietnam era. Its uncompromising imagery and direct appeal remain emblematic of the political activism and visual culture that emerged in response to one of the most divisive periods in modern American history.
 
Condition: Excellent.