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Catalogue information
LastDodo number
5921019
Area
Drawings / paintings
Title
State Dept.
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, probably 1950, shows an FBI investigator on his knees with a magnifying glass examining an unending roll of film leading to a door of the ‘State Department’. Three worried-looking State Dept. officials are watching him. During a speech in February 1950 the Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy claimed that he had a list with the names of over 200 members of the State Department who were known communists. The speech brought McCarthy to national prominence and sparked nationwide concern about subversives in the American government. The unravelled length of ‘film’ may refer to the fact that the House Un-American Activities Committee had already investigated the Hollywood film industry for its supposed communist influences, resulting in hundreds of actors, directors, writers and others being blacklisted and forced out of the industry. Card size 56 x 38 cm (22 x 15 inch), image size 42 x 28 cm, signed lower right. Slight stain in upper right corner, otherwise in very good condition.