For Our Independence! Get the Killer! For Democracy! The Czechoslovak Army
Description
This World War I poster is one of a series by the Czech artist Vojtěch Preissig (1873–1944) that encouraged Czech and Slovak volunteers living in the United States to fight with the Czechoslovak Legion against Austria-Hungary and Germany to further the cause of an independent Czechoslovakia. The poster shows two soldiers engaged in hand-to-hand combat, and the text reads, in Czech: “Down with the murderers! Up with Democracy!” Preissig was born in the Czech-speaking part of Austria-Hungary. From 1892 to 1896 he studied in Prague at the School of Applied Industrial Art. He then studied and worked in Paris and Prague before moving to the United States in 1910, where he gained a reputation as an innovator in the fields of printmaking, book design, typography, and illustration. From 1912 to 1916 he taught at both the Art Students’ League and at Columbia University in New York. From 1916 to 1926 he directed the School of Printing and Graphic Arts at the Wentworth Institute in Boston. This poster was one in a series designed and printed at the Wentworth Institute and distributed by the Czechoslovak Recruiting Office in New York.
Subject Date
Publication Information
Czechoslovak Recruiting Office,
New York
Language
Title in Original Language
Za naši samostatnost! Hrr na vraha! Za demokracii! Československá armáda
Topic
Additional Subjects
Type of Item
Physical Description
1 print (poster) : lithograph, color ; 91 x 64 centimeters
Collection
Institution
External Resource
IIIF Manifest Help
Last updated: July 19, 2017