MYTH AND MANPOWER encourages the visitor to experience the power of graphic design to communicate ideas — from the selling of commercial products to the promotion of social issues.  The exhibition accomplishes this by juxtaposing labels created for promoting California citrus fruits -- and California itself -- with posters that the United Farm Workers of America created to mobilize for agricultural workers’ rights.

Each exhibit in MYTH AND MANPOWER presents one of the glamorous lithographed labels that adorned crates of California citrus fruits that used to be displayed in grocery stores throughout the United States next to one of the tough labor union posters distributed by the United Farm Workers of America.

Dolores
United Farm Workers of America
Designer: Barbara Carrasco, c. 1999
Printer: Self-Help Graphics
Medium: Silkscreen
Dimensions: 26 in. x 18 in.
Collection: Self-Help Graphics Archives
California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives, Dept of Special Collections, Donald Davidson Library, University of California, Santa Barbara

Miracle Brand
Bradford Bros. Inc.
Placentia, California
Designer: Unknown, c. 1940
Printer: Western Litho. Co., Los Angeles, California
Medium: Offset Lithograph
Dimensions: 10 3/4 in. x 9 7/8 in.
Collection: Museum of California Design

Although they draw on similar themes each graphic in a pair uses its own style to convey its message. Thus, the key element in each — whether that be the California landscape, women, modes of transportation or animals — is represented in a radically different way.

The names of few of the artists who designed the citrus labels — which were printed in San Francisco and Los Angeles in the first half of the 20th century — are known. However, most of the Untied Farm Workers posters in the exhibition, from later in the 20th century, were designed by well-recognized Chicano artists and designers — Barbara Carrasco, Octavio Ocampo, Peter Gallegos, Ricardo Favela, Juanishi Orozco, Estaban Villa, and Xavier Viramontes — and Chicano art collectives — Graphic Arts Group (San Francisco), Royal Chicano Air Force (Sacramento) and La Raza Silkscreen Center (San Francisco).

Both the citrus industry and the United Farm Workers played significant roles in the economic development of California in the 20th century and continue to be mainstays of the state’s economy. Each has had a significant impact on the multi-faceted character of the state, from the wealth that produced “millionaires row” on Orange Grove Boulevard in Pasadena to the strides made for social justice by Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta and activists of the farm workers movement. MYTH AND MANPOWER honors their contributions to California’s design history.

The United Farm Workers posters were lent to the exhibition by the California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives at the University of California, Santa Barbara, the Center for the Study of Political Graphics in Los Angeles and All Of Us Or None Archive, Berkeley, courtesy of Lincoln Cushing.  The citrus box labels are from the collection of the A. K. Smiley Library, Redlands, California, Museum of California Design, Los Angeles, California, and Jill and Lily Collins. Exhibition paper conservator and framing consultant: Kene Rosa.

For additional information go to: www.cafam.org.