Free World or Slave World from the portfolio Century of the Common Man

Hugo Gellert’s art reflected his political and social activism in particular, his opposition to Fascism and the exploitation of workers under capitalism. His work—and the ways in which he exhibited and published it—reflected his goal of eschewing the elitism of traditional easel painting in order to reach a broad and diverse public. He created murals, posters, prints, and art designed for publications, such as newspapers and journals, both those associated with leftist ideology and communism (such as The Masses, New Masses, and The Liberator) as well as more mainstream publications such as The New Yorker. His developed a distinctive aesthetic that recalls Socialist Realism, as well as forms and images that evoke the mechanized forms of the machine-age. "Century of The Common Man" is a portfolio comprising 19 screenprints that act as illustrations to a speech given by the U.S. Vice President Henry A. Wallace. Gellert, maximized the potential of screenprint to create a visual language comprised of simplified forms, dark outlines, and large, flat areas of bold, saturated colors without any shading or moderation. This work is plate 19 from "Century of the Common Man."

In "Free World or Slave World" Gellert maximized the potential of screenprint to create a visual language comprised of simplified forms, dark outlines, and large, flat areas of bold, saturated colors without any shading or moderation. The image is divided in half; one side shows a man, woman, and small child held on the man's shoulders, all depicted in bold colors, while the other half is composed primarily in dark tones of brown, black, and grey and is dominated by a swastika. A skeleton is shown holding a whip in the air and terrorizing a large group of people, who are depicted as huddling masses. By contrast, the other side shows a woman triumphantly holds wheat in her hand and holds a basket, a reference to the bounty and freedom offered by Communism as opposes to the terrorism, brutality and oppression of Nazism.