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Catalogue information
LastDodo number
5882621
Area
Drawings / paintings
Title
UN Veto
Artist
Art object
Art Movement / style
Genre
Material
Technique used
Colouring
Dimensions
56 x 38 cm
Series / hero
Collection / set
Number
Addition to number
Year
1950
Country
Language
Details
Original editorial cartoon on card in ink and crayon for the New York Daily Mirror, around 1950, shows Andrey Vishinsky on his way to the United Nations General Assembly dragging the ‘VETO’ rubber stamp kicking and screaming alongside him. From 1949 until Stalin's death in 1953 Vishinsky was Soviet foreign minister and from 1947 to 1953 also headed the Soviet UN delegation to the United Nations. This was a period when important post-war issues came before the UN - India and Pakistan fighting over Kashmir, the partition of Palestine and the creation of Israel, Berlin, Korea. The Soviets used their power of veto in the Security Council (which is perhaps what should be referred to here, and not the General Assembly) as a matter of routine to the great frustration of the western powers; during the first 10 years the Soviet Union used its veto 79 times. In the same period China used the veto once, France twice and the others not at all. Vishinsky was notorious for his vitriolic and venomous denunciations of the western powers in the UN. Card size 56 x 38 cm (22 x 15 inch), image size 40 x 27 cm, signed lower right. Age-toning along part of right-hand and lower edges, otherwise in very good condition.