The Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University announces a major exhibition that examines the key role played by crowds in modern politics and society from World War I to the fall of the Berlin Wall. On view through January 1, “Revolutionary Tides: The Art of the Political Poster, 1914-1989,” focuses on the turbulent years of the first three-quarters of the Twentieth Century, bringing together 120 of the most exceptional examples from the vast poster collections of the Hoover Institution at Stanford and The Wolfsonian-Florida International University in Miami Beach.

“Revolutionary Tides” presents posters from such diverse settings as New Deal America, the Soviet Union of Stalin’s Five-Year Plans, China’s Cultural Revolution, the protest movements of the 1960s in the United States and Europe, and Ayatollah Khomeni’s Iran. The exhibition features work by world-renowned graphic artists such as John Heartfield, Gustav Klutsis and Xanti Schawinsky and includes art ranging from an illustration depicting “Freedom of Speech” by Norman Rockwell to silkscreened portraits of communist leader Mao Tse-Tung by Andy Warhol.

Posters, a distinctly modern medium of mass communication and persuasion, served as a laboratory for the development of graphic conventions for depicting the masses as political actors. The emergence of a politics founded upon principles of popular sovereignty shaped new images of the masses as a collective force. At the same time, the new art practice of the popular poster shaped the emerging politics and cast artists in the role of mass communicators.

The exhibition is organized into three broad areas – Figures, Numbers and Symbols – each of which surveys a particular graphic convention, iconographic element, or theme. “Figures” analyzes the graphic vernacular of Twentieth Century political poster art, such as the presentation of crowds arrayed as fronts or geometrical figures and their abstraction into seas or decorative patterns. “Numbers” emphasizes the intimate ties between modern notions of political power and ideas of quantity, including statistical data, industrial production, and large-scale construction and destruction. “Symbols” is devoted to examining the interaction between the image of the crowd and icons representing the group, such as party emblems, faces of leaders, or exemplary men or women from the masses.

Wolfgang Janisch (born 1940), East Germany, “We are the People! (Wir sind das Volk!)” 1989, black and white lithograph, 23 by 16 inches.

Jeffrey T. Schnapp, founder and director of the StanfordHumanities Lab, is the guest curator for the exhibition. Theexhibition is accompanied by a catalog entitled RevolutionaryTides, published by Skira. An associated, multiauthor book/website hybrid entitled Crowds (Stanford University Press)weaves together scholarly essays on topics extending from crowds inantiquity to contemporary “smart mobs,” with testimonials, semantichistories and reference materials on crowd psychology and crowdsociology. In conjunction with the exhibit “Revolutionary Tides,”the Hoover Institution presents East German political posters byartist and activist Wolfgang Janisch in the Herbert Hoover MemorialExhibit Pavilion, through December 16.

“Revolutionary Tides” was organized by the Cantor Arts Center with the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, the Stanford Humanities Lab and The Wolfsonian at Florida International University. Support for this project has been provided by the Clumeck Endowment Fund, The Bernard Osher Foundation, The Seaver Institute, The Mariposa Fund, Roger and Martha Mertz, and Cantor Arts Center members.

After the exhibition’s presentation at Stanford, “Revolutionary Tides” will travel to The Wolfsonian in Miami Beach, where it will be on view February 25-June 25.

The Cantor Center is at 328 Lomita Drive and Museum Way (off Palm Drive). For information, 650-723-4177 or ccva.stanford.edu.