"Art festival for the Chilean Resistance poster" [NMLH.1994.168.569]

Catalogue Number
NMLH.1994.168.569

Object Name
Poster

Title
Art festival for the Chilean Resistance

People
Salvador Allende

Events
Chilean coup d'etat

Date
1974

Description
Black poster featuring a photograph of Salvador Allende, Chilean president and leader of the Popular Unity government (UP) elected to power in 1970. The UP government was the first democratically elected Marxist government but was overthrown in a military coup lead by Augusto Pinochet in 1973, during which Allende comitted suicide rather than surrender. This poster advertises an event in his honour, 'ART FESTIVAL FOR THE CHILEAN RESISTANCE' hosted at the Royal College of Art in October 1974. The event was run by Artists for Democracy in aid of left wing activists in Chile who were being persecuted under Pinochet's regime. The poster also features a graphic of a white dove flying above Allende's head, within which the word 'venceremos' can be read, referring to the song written for Allende's original election campaign and meaning "we will overcome". The poster was printed by SW (Litho) Printers Ltd in London.

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