WORLD WAR II ARIAS BERNAL PORTFOLIO PRINT SET.
Item Description
12.25x16.25" folio w/quarter paper-covered cloth back boards contains set of 56 (all shown online) propaganda drawings in the form of a full deck of 52 cards, plus three jokers and a cover plate. Funded by the US Government and produced for the American market, this portfolio was created by famed Mexican illustrator and commercial illustrators Antonio Arias Bernal (1913-1960), one of Mexico's most important political cartoonists of the mid-twentieth century, his influences being traced to directly to Walt Disney and Mexican caricaturist Ernesto García Cabral. Bernal's anti-Axis illustrations graced the covers the Mexican publications Mañana and Hoy during World War II, along w/appearing in American magazines Look and Collier's. The illustration topics/event cover the breadth of World War II, ranging from Hitler's Munich beer hall putsch to the atomic bomb. The portfolio has descriptions of each card in English, as these rare sets were made specifically for the US. Personalities depicted include - Franklin D. Eisenhower, Winston Churchill, Charles de Gaulle, Joseph Stalin, Chiang Kai-shek, Haile Selassie, Dwight Eisenhower, Douglas MacArthur, Bernard Montgomery, Adolph Hitler, Benito Mussolini, King Victor Emmanuel III, Emperor Hirohito, Joseph Goebbels, Heinrich Himmler, Hermann Goering, Erwin Rommel, Hideki Tojo as well as American soldiers, Rosie the Riveters building tank and Uncle Sam. Some events depicted or referenced to include - signing of the Munich Agreement, Nazi invasion of Poland, Pearl Harbor, the liberation of France, the bombing of Hiroshima and scene showing Hitler being roasted by the Statue of Liberty's torch. Stereotypical anti-Axis Japanese caricatures throughout. Project was created in 1945 at the behest of the office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs (CIAA), an American propaganda agency based in Washington, D.C. The goal of the deck of cards was to help persuade then neutral South American countries to declare their support for the Allied cause. By the time the CIAA was being shut down w/the end of the war in sight, the project was largely finished. Bernal was then granted permission to complete the set using the leftover funds from his commission to print an undetermined number of the complete portfolios. These sets were then distributed to selected libraries and colleges across the US, w/some of them finding their way into private hands. The portfolio itself shows obvious and heavy wear, w/tape repair to spine (now separated) and heavy corner foxing. Just Good. Prints have varying degrees of aging/wear, w/a few having corner tip wear/chips. Majority have margin aging w/one print being moderately aged. Eisenhower print has some scattered minor staining, but o/w rest are clean and VF, w/a few in Fine condition. Wonderful set of prints featuring Bernal's distinctive style.
