They Will Torture You, My Friend, from the portfolio CONSPIRACY: The Artist as Witness

Inscriptions

Inscribed, in graphite, at lower left: AP; signed, in graphite, at lower right: Nancy Spero / Leon Golub

Label

During the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, thousands of demonstrations marched in anti-Vietnam War protests. After a violent faceoff between police and protestors, eight demonstrators were charged with conspiracy to incite riots. As The Dartmouth’s article reprinted here testifies, the controversial five-month trial that followed garnered national attention. Amidst a larger public outcry, a group of notable artists joined together to make a powerful statement against the convictions. Under the auspices of the Center of Constitutional Rights and publisher David R. Godine, artist Pearl Hirschfiweld assembled twelve artist’s works into a portfolio of both prints and transcribed speeches by the defendants and their lawyer, William Kunstler. The portfolio not only confronted the injustice of the trial but also raised funds to support the legal defense of the accused.

The work of Nancy Spero and her husband, Leon Albert Golub, juxtaposes an abstracted torso blurred behind a cascade of chains against a floating figure, circled by a blood-red ink. This print speaks to the brutality of war and the cruelty it inflicts on an innocent population. By contrast, Peter Saul’s print is the only work within the portfolio that directly refers to the trial. Employing his usual cartoonish style and satirical undertones, Saul portrayed Robert "Bobby" Seale, the eighth defendant, whose charges were dropped early in the trial.

From the 2020 exhibition A Space for Dialogue 99, When Art Intersects History, curated by Allison Carrey '20, Class of 1954 Intern

Exhibition History

A Space for Dialogue 5, Amanda Potter, Class of 2002, Education Intern, Main Lobby, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, April 20-May 12, 2002.

A Space for Dialogue 99, When Art Intersects History, Alison Carey, Class of 2020, Class of 1954 Intern, Alvin P. Gutman Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, March 7-April 26, 2020.l

Art and/as Violence, Harrington Gallery Teaching Exhibition, Art History 2, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, December 12, 2006-March 11, 2007.

Late and Post-Modernism: Selections from the Permanent Collection, Harrington Gallery Teaching Exhibition, Art History 55, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, May 5-June 18, 1995.

Lower Jewett Corridor, Hopkins Center Art Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, August 29-October 5, 1975.

One cent Life and Related Prints, Lower Jewett Corridor, Hopkins Center Art Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 8-February 23, 1975.

Recent American Graphics, Lower Jewett Corridor, Hopkins Center Art Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, April 18-May 15, 1980.

Publication History

Allison Carey, A Space for Dialogue 99, When Art Intersects History, Hanover, New Hampshire: Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, 2020.

Provenance

David R. Godine, Boston, Massachusetts; given to present collection, 1972.

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Subjects