HENRY KOERNER (1915-?) SOMEONE TALKED. 1943.

34x24 inches. Grinnell, New York.
Condition B+: vertical and horizontal folds; minor tears in margins; paper skinning in top corners. Paper
The Austrian-born Henri Koerner did at least two posters during World War II, both in 1943. For this image he won the R. Hoe & Co. award in the Museum of Modern Art's Artists for Victory competition. It is a direct and simple image against careless talk where the huge hand made out of a newspaper bearing the banner headline that a ship was sunk is literally fingering the little "every man" who let this information slip out. Utilizing the universally recognizable pointing-finger, as established by James Montgomery Flagg in his famous Uncle Sam / I Want You poster, this is the kind of immediate communication that is needed to deliver an important message in war years.
ref: Word and Image, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1968- p. 88.