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C1950
Czechoslovaks! Join Our Free Colours!
Artist:
Vojtech Preissig (1873 - 144)
The most famous of the propaganda posters produced by Preissig for the Wentworth Institute during World War I calling on Czechoslovaks living abroad to join the Czech legion fighting in Europe. The posters exist in different languages (Czech, Slovak and … Read Full Description
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Full Title:
Czechoslovaks! Join Our Free Colours!
Date:
C1950
Artist:
Vojtech Preissig (1873 - 144)
Condition:
In good condition.
Technique:
Linocut printed in sixteen colours.
Image Size:
640mm
x 900mm
AUTHENTICITY
Guaranteed Vintage Item
dated:
1950
Description:
The most famous of the propaganda posters produced by Preissig for the Wentworth Institute during World War I calling on Czechoslovaks living abroad to join the Czech legion fighting in Europe. The posters exist in different languages (Czech, Slovak and English) and formats (the images also appear on postcards).
The flags depicted in the poster represent the four regions which would, in 1918, comprise Czechoslovakia: Bohemia (the red lion); Moravia (the red and white checked eagle); Silesia (the black eagle); and Slovakia (with the Slovak double cross, similar to the French cross of Loraine). The red, white and blue flag, with the stars in the middle, was the Resistance flag of the Czechoslovak Independence movement which Preissig had designed for the Czech Government while in Exile. It was supposed to have become the Czech national flag, but was somehow overlooked in 1918 when Czechoslovakia was officially formed.
Printed by The School of Printing and Graphic Arts of Wentworth Institute, for Czechoslovak Recruiting Office.
After war was declared, protest rallies of Czech and Slovak countrymen were organized in main centres of the United States under American flags. A revolutionary club called ‘Ceskoslovenská republika’ (Czechoslovak Republic) was established in Chicago on 8 November 1914. The effort to coordinate collective action in America reached a peak in the establishment of the Bohemian (Czech) National Alliance in September 1914. Together with the Slovak League they supported the major representative of the resistance movement—the Czechoslovak National Council in Paris (recognized as a provisional government in 1918).
Biography:
Vojtech Preissig (1873-1944)
Preissig was a Czech printmaker, designer, illustrator, painter and teacher. He studied in Prague at the School of Applied Industrial Art rom 1892 to 1896 and at the School of Decorative Architecture from 1897 to 1898.
In 1897 he moved to Paris and worked for two years with the Czech Art Nouvea artist, Alphonse Mucha. His early Secessionist work was influenced by Japanese art and Symbolism. He returned to Prague in 1903 where he founded the periodical Ceska grafika (Czech Graphics), published the book Barevny lept a barevná rytina (Color Etchings and Color Engravings) in 1909 and opened his own graphics studio in 1905. The studio was not a financial success so he moved to the United States in 1910 and worked as an art instructor. Preissig remained in the United States until 1930. He taught at Columbia University, the Art Students League of New York and then moved to Boston by 1916 teaching graphic arts for the Wentworth Institute. He became the director of the School of Printing and Graphic Arts, until 1926.] During his time with the Wentworth Institute he designed recruitment posters for the United States World War I armed forces which were principally aimed at Czech immigrants.
Preissig, along with his daughter supported the Czech resistance during both World Wars and was arrested in 1940 for his graphic design work for one of the most important magazines of the resistance, ‘V boi’ (Into the Fight), that had been outlawed by German authorities.
He died on the 11th of June, 1944 in Dachau concentration camp.
