Cold War

Politicians at Work

by Anton Refregier

Criticizing the 1945 United Nations Conference on International Organization, Refregier’s painting shows politicians ignoring the war destruction looming behind them. 

The conference was held to write the official UN Charter, but any hope of effective peace keeping died with the advent of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. 

With his barbed wire and prominent symbols of Nazi concentration camps, Refregier implies that the politicians are incapable of freeing themselves from the ongoing effects of world war.