Anon | 1970s

Anon – The Aspen Wall Poster No. 1, c.1970, by Thomas W. Benton

A large red hand rises against a white ground, fingers arranged in a V-sign - two fingers raised, thumb folded over the remaining two. The gesture sits somewhere between a peace sign and a victory salute, the distinction intentionally unresolved. To the left, "anon" is set vertically in bold black type, the letters stacked. At the lower right, a black circle contains the numeral "1" in white, with "the aspen wall poster" printed below it in small text.

Thomas W. Benton and Hunter S. Thompson created the first Aspen Wall Poster in March 1970 as the official print organ of the Aspen Liberation Front, a loose-knit group of local activists opposing both the Vietnam War and the commercial development threatening Aspen's character. Wall Poster No. 1 was an instant success, distributed on the streets and in local venues, with Thompson's political writing on one side and Benton's image on the other. The series would eventually run to at least seven issues, growing progressively more provocative. The red hand echoes the protest imagery flooding American cities in 1970, the year of the Kent State shootings and the largest student strikes in US history.

Benton (1930–2007) created his first anti-war poster in 1965 and became a charter member of the Aspen Liberation Front. After serving in the Korean War, he studied architecture at USC on the G.I. Bill, worked briefly as an architect, then moved to Aspen in 1963 and quickly became involved in local politics — drawn to the rhetorical potential of combining text and image to convey political messages. His silkscreen posters went on to catalogue political movements and elections from 1968 to 2006, encompassing presidential campaigns for George McGovern and Gary Hart alongside scores of local Aspen causes.