An Urgent Treaty of Peace between the Big Five Un Tratado Urgente de Paz Entre los Cinco Grandes

Date

1951

Creator

In this poster advocating a peace treaty among the Big Five, the influence of Beltrán’s former employment as a comic strip illustrator is clearly evident in his skillful blending of text and image. The Big Five countries—the United States, the United Kingdom, the USSR, China, and France—formed a council after World War II in the hope of drawing up peace treaties with former Axis countries. Although they held more than thirty meetings to achieve this, they only reached a stalemate. Beltrán’s poster advertises a meeting of Mexico City’s youth, listing the names of various students scheduled to speak in demand of peace. The exigency of their request, visualized in the artist’s broad, forceful cuts into the printing plate, is further amplified by the fact that this poster was produced six years after the meetings of the Big Five began. from Costa, Para la Gente: Art, Politics and Cultural Identity of the Taller de Gráfica Popular (Notre Dame, 2009)