A startling, circular, anti-war print from the Vietnam Era, by Los Angeles artist LORRAINE SCHNEIDER (1925-1972). Comprised of six segments, each depicting a black-and-white scene from WWI—including a blindfolded draft board official drawing from a bowl of conscription lottery numbers—it was built with a knob over the center of its Plexiglas frame so that it can be spun like a boardgame wheel. A limited edition. Schneider is better known for the illustration Primer (1966), which features a sunflower on a yellow background amid the famous slogan “War is not healthy for children and other living things.” The image was donated to Another Mother for Peace, the grass-roots advocacy group, for their 1967 Mother’s Day card campaign.

LORRAINE SCHNEIDER (née Art) was born in Chicago in 1925. A graphic artist and mother of four, she is best known for creating what proved to be one of the most emotionally charged images of the Vietnam War era.

In 1967, Schneider entered a small work titled “Primer” in a miniature print show at Pratt Institute in New York City. The sole criterion for submissions was that they could not exceed four square inches. With the war and concerns about her eldest son’s conscription foremost in her thoughts, Schneider made (her daughter later recalled) her own “personal picket sign.” Because those were the days of “flower power,” she drew a sunflower—surrounding it in roughly scrawled lettering with the message “War is Not Healthy for Children and Other Living Things.”

Schneider never conceived of her entry as an actual placard, let alone the logo for the political movement that would grow up around it. It was only when TV producer Barbara Avedon (later the co-creator of Cagney & Lacey) gathered together 15 middle-class women in her southern California home to discuss ways to protest the war that the image found its enduring purpose. As Avedon noted in a catalog of Schneider’s work: “The women were reluctant to go the bearded-sandaled youth or wild-eyed radical route, yet they were chomping at the bit to let the US Congress know how enraged they were in the face of mounting body bags.”

It was decided that 1,000 “Mother’s Day cards” bearing Schneider's sunflower would be sent to Washington as letters of protest—and the pressure group “Another Mother for Peace” (AMP) was born, soon joining the vanguard of the surging protest movement. AMP’s remarkable success in reaching across political and party lines was in large part owing to the universal appeal of Schneider’s simple design.

Schneider went on to produce several more anti-war images. She was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 1972 and died that year at the age of 47.

Man will learn to resolve his inevitable difference through nonmilitary alternatives. But it is up to us, the artists. . . to prepare the emotional soil for the last step out of the cave. – LORRAINE SCHNEIDER

DETAILS

Artist – LORRAINE SCHNEIDER (1925-1972)

Period/Year – 1970s

Origin – USA

Styles/Movements – ILLUSTRATION, FIGURATIVE, MODERN

Media – MEDIA

Support – SUPPORT

Edition – 6/25

Colors – LINEN, GRAY, BLACK

Condition – Excellent vintage condition. May show minor signs of previous ownership and use.

Dimensions – 22 ¼" H × 22 ¼" W × 1 ½" D