Four Freedoms Typographic US propaganda poster promoting FDR’s Four Freedoms in Central America
Extent and Medium
overall: Height: 20.000 inches (50.8 cm) | Width: 14.250 inches (36.195 cm)
Creator(s)
- Herbert Bayer (Designer)
- Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs (Publisher)
Biographical History
Herbert Bayer was born on April 5, 1900, in Haag, Austria, near Vienna. Bayer studied at the Bauhaus school in Weimar under Johannes Itten and Wassily Kandinsky. In 1925, Bayer was hired by Walter Gropius as an instructor at the school upon its move to Dessau, where he headed the graphic design and typography workshop. In 1928, Bayer moved to Berlin to run his own design studio. He also did advertising work and served as art director of Paris Vogue from 1929-1930. In 1933, Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany and, by that summer, had established the Nazi dictatorship. The regime viewed the Bauhaus as a center of communist activity and the school, then under the leadership of Mies van der Rohe, was shut down in 1933 under pressure from the government. Many of Bayer's Bauhaus colleagues, including Gropius, fled the country. Bayer remained in Berlin and his work included pro-Hitler tourist brochures for the 1936 Olympics. He left Germany for the United States in 1938 after his work was included in the Nazi propaganda exhibition, Degenerate Art. He became one of the most influential graphic artists of the 20th century. He married Joella Haweis and became a US citizen in 1944. Bayer, age 85, died in September 1985.
Archival History
The poster was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2012 by Carlos Zepeda.
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Carlos Zepeda
Scope and Content
Cuatro Libertades (Four Freedoms) is an American propaganda poster produced during World War II for distribution in Central America. It is part of a series of five posters created to promote President Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms. In his January 1941 State of the Union address, FDR proposed four fundamental freedoms that people everywhere in the world should enjoy: Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Worship, Freedom from Want, and Freedom from Fear. The Spanish language posters were published by the Office of Inter-American Affairs in 1942 to gain support for the Allies in Central America. Herbert Bayer, Alexey Brodovitch, Edward McKnight Kauffer, and John Atherton were commissioned to design the posters by Nelson Rockefeller, Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs. This colorful typographic poster was designed by Herbert Bayer. Bayer was a Bauhaus trained graphic designer who fled Germany for the US after his works were displayed in the 1937 Nazi exhibition, Degenerate Art.
Conditions Governing Access
No restrictions on access
Conditions Governing Reproduction
No restrictions on use
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Rectangular offset lithograph poster on offwhite paper with a background design of blue swirling brushstrokes. It features 5 phrases printed in bold stylized font, organized around the word, Libres, which is tilted across the center of the poster, in the largest font, blue with black shading; the font size decreases from left to right. Surrounding it are 4 phrases, whose font size increases from right to left, all tilted at different angles, from the top: Libertad de Cultos, red ink shaded with yellow and blue; Libertad de Palabra, green ink shaded with yellow, red, and blue; Libres de Miseria, red shaded with black; Libres de Temor, green shaded with yellow.
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Subjects
- United States--Foreign relations--Latin America--Posters.
- Propaganda, American--Latin America--History--20th Century.
- Civil rights in art.
- Latin America--Foreign relations--United States--Posters.
- World War 1939-1945--Propaganda--Posters.
Genre
- Posters
- Object