American Gothic Starring Shirley Chisholm and George Wallace

[African Americana]: [Chisholm, Shirley]: [Wallace, George]: Gescheidt, Alfred:

[Politics Makes Strange Bedfellows].

New York: YIPPY, 1971. Pictorial poster, 28 x 22 inches, printed in black and white. Old soft creases, minor edge wear. Very good. Item #5558

A rare poster parodying Grant Wood's American Gothic by photomechanically superimposing the heads of Shirley Chisholm and George Wallace onto the original subjects of the painting. The artist responsible for this striking piece of photo-montage was Alfred Gescheidt, a notable commercial photographer who specialized in the art form. The poster was issued untitled, but Gescheidt soon after applied the phrase, "Politics makes strange bedfellows" to the piece and the title stuck. The central image of the work juxtaposes pioneering Congresswoman and 1972 Democratic presidential candidate Shirley Chisholm with notorious Alabama segregationist George Wallace, who also vied for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1972. Interesting note: after the attempted assassination of George Wallace in May 1972, Shirley Chisholm visited him in the hospital. OCLC reports just one institutional holding of this striking poster, at the University of Virginia.

Price: $550