Details
The image
A dove drawn with a few economical lines, wings open, the body simplified to an oval, the background a flat field of one colour. The lettering is set large beneath and the composition is centred, so the sheet behaves like a badge for a cause.
Where it comes from
The poster was displayed at the Galerie L’Art et La Paix on the Rue de Clichy in Paris and its subject is Pablo Picasso’s commitment to the themes of peace and freedom, which he took up after the war. Peace congresses of the late 1940s and 1950s adopted the dove as their emblem and the image spread through posters, stamps and banners because it needed no translation. Designers simplified it further each time it was reproduced, until the bird became a sign rather than a drawing.
On the wall
It suits a hallway, a study or a child’s room, where an emblem with a clear meaning can hold a wall. Because the composition is centred and the palette reduced, it works on a small wall as well as a large one. In a group it should be the piece that gives the arrangement a centre.
In company
Hung as a pair with something from the Iconic collection, it gains rather than loses.Avoid hanging it beside a second centred symbol, two badges on one wall weaken each other.
