Memorial service for dead babies at the MoMa (3 January 1970)

This photograph shows Jean Toche and another artist holding up the “And Babies?” poster against the Picasso painting, Guernica. The poster was an iconic anti-Vietnam war poster featuring a color photograph of the massacre in My Lai taken by the US combat photographer, Ronald L. Haeberle on March 16 1968. GAAG, AWC members and the Destruction in Art symposium staged this as part of a protest against the killing of innocent civilians in Vietnam, in front of Picasso’s Guernica at the MoMa (Museum of Modern Art) in New York. They called this a memorial service for dead babies and it was led by Stephen Garmey, a Columbia university chaplain and included passages from the bible, poetry by Denise Levertov, and accounts of American soldiers killing Vietnamese babies in My Lai taken from the Dec 5 issue (1969) of Life magazine. Funeral wreaths were placed under the painting and the “And Babies?” poster was held up against it. One of the protestors, Joyce Kozloff sat on the ground in front of the painting, holding her 8-month old baby to give the protest a theatrical tone.

A later event on the 8th had the artists lie down in front of the painting for 2 hours and sing “Guernica, Guernica, Song My, Murders, Murders”. During this second protest, others wore the “And Babies?” poster on placards.

(Mathew Israel: Kill for peace: American Artists against Vietnam War)