Label Type
Cultural/Historical ContextLabel
In 1978, former San Francisco supervisor Dan White assassinated Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, the first openly gay elected official in California. White was found guilty of the lesser crime of manslaughter (instead of murder) due to his depression; he claimed excess consumption of the sugary junk food Twinkies caused this. Outraged by White’s light seven-year sentence and his early release, San Francisco erupted. Sances quickly created and distributed this poster for the protests. He smashed an actual Twinkie in the copy camera and photographed the result to create the image.
The subtitle, “Monument to Injustice,” refers to the censorship of Robert Arneson’s memorial sculpture of Moscone, originally commissioned by the city but rejected by the Arts Commission under pressure from Mayor Dianne Feinstein. Arneson’s sculpture is depicted wrapped in San Francisco Chronicle stories about the rejection. The sculpture was acquired by SFMOMA in 2012.