The controversy surrounding Norman Lindsay’s shocking 1918 recruitment posters
The controversy surrounding Norman Lindsay’s shocking 1918 recruitment posters Throughout the Great War, Australia had to rely on volunteers to replenish its divisions on the Western Front. With enlistments drying up in 1918, a desperate Australian government turned to artist Norman Lindsay to produce six recruitment posters. In early October 1918, aiming to surprise and shock, the posters were distributed at night, one design at a time. In this poster, Lindsay suggested that an invading German army could threaten Australia. It plays on visceral themes of marauding ape-like Germans wearing spiked helmets threatening a homestead with a husband unable to protect his vulnerable wife. Was Lindsay - who is better known for classics such as ‘The Magic Pudding - really a Machiavellian artist who cravenly preyed on peoples’ primal fears? Lindsay had been deeply affected by the war. In 1916, his younger brother, Reg, died on the Somme. His death deeply affected Lindsay, who thereafter acu