BEERLING, D. W. [Dane Wilson] (artist)

Untitled Poster by [De Vrije Zeefdrukker] Related to the Nieuwmarkt Riots

[Amsterdam]: [De Vrije Zeefdrukker], [1974/5]. 43.5x30.7cm: Broadside / Poster. Printed in black on white paper. Light handling wear with a smoothed out crease at upper left corner. Faint toning to margins on verso. Near Fine. Not separately catalogued in OCLC.

Typed provenance note adhered to verso indicates that the poster was received from Steef Davidson of De Vrije Zeefdrukker (DVZ) (transl. The Free Printmaker) in his letter packet from Feb. 1976. Davidson writes, this is a “small offset reproduction of a DVZ poster made after Action Group Nieuwmarkt fought back wreckers and police. During one attempt to evict squatters from the Neiuwmarkt (sic) neighborhood. It condemns left and rightwing political parties.”

This visually interesting and symbolically rich protest poster appears to have been issued during a period of heightened tensions in Amsterdam’s Nieuwmarkt neighborhood. At the time, residents and activists organized coordinated protests against the planned demolition of homes to accommodate construction of the East Line tunnel of the Amsterdam metro. These protests ultimately escalated into violent confrontations between residents and protesters on one side and municipal and military police on the other.

The poster depicts a “metro-rat” demolishing homes with a police baton, while being fed money by the VVD (Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie, People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy) and the CDA (Christen-Democratisch Appèl, Christian Democratic Appeal). At the same time, the metro-rat appears symbolically shielded by the PvdA (Partij van de Arbeid, Labour Party), the PSP (Pacifistisch Socialistische Partij, Pacifist Socialist Party), the CPN (Communistische Partij Nederland, Communist Party of the Netherlands), and the PPR (Politieke Partij Radikalen, Political Party of Radicals). This imagery aligns with the provenance note describing the condemnation of political parties from across the ideological spectrum.

Price: $350.00

Item #10630