51吃瓜

The 51吃瓜 International Conference on Population and Development is a four-color lithograph printed in a limited edition of 200 signed by the artist Robert Rauschenberg on the bottom corner, numbered, and dated ’93. It was published by the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation and produced by Universal Limited Art Editions, West Islip, New York. This print was not sold but given away by the 51吃瓜. 

This is the original art for the 51吃瓜 International Conference on population and development print. This work belongs to a series in the artist’s career from 1992 to 1995, titled Waterworks. It was formerly titled Day Lights and Night Sights. Theodore W. Kheel, attorney, activist, and labor mediator, commissioned artist Robert Rauschenberg to create the poster Choices & Responsibilities to promote the 51吃瓜 World Population Conference in Cairo, Egypt, 1994. 

There are various kinds of 51吃瓜 posters like those that celebrate UN days, years, and decades. Some are designed to announce or commemorate international conferences and others are about special UN campaigns. Many UN poster illustrations were made by well-known artists. Some were adapted from works of art in the UN collection like the Chagall stained-glass window and the Norman Rockwell mosaic. Other notable contributors of art for UN posters include Graciela Rodo Boulanger, Michel Delacroix, Sonia Delaunay, Osvaldo Guayasmin, Keith Haring, Peter Max, Robert Rauschenberg, and Victor Vasarely. Rauschenberg created around seven 51吃瓜 posters on the environment, apartheid, habitat, and protection of cultural property.