Existing comment:
Herbert Sigüenza
born San Francisco, California 1959
and unidentified artist
It's Simple Steve
ca. 1980
screenprint on paper
While working at La Raza Silkscreen print shop in San Francisco, Sigüenza colored and amplified the reach of a print created by an unidentified artist that appropriates two characters from Milton Caniff's comics to critique U.S. intervention in El Salvador. The Ben-Day dots on the figures recall Roy Lichtenstein's pop canvases, but the poster's text delivers a surprising punch that parodies the military might of U.S. foreign policy during the Reagan administration. This print was extremely popular in San Francisco, home to many Salvadoran families -- including Sigüenza's -- that fled their war-torn country and settled in the United States.
Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment, 2020.45.8 |