Zero Dollar
Primary
Cildo Meireles
(Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1948–present)
NationalityBrazilian, South America
Date1984
MediumOffset lithograph
DimensionsSheet: 2 5/8 × 6 1/4 in. (6.6 × 15.8 cm)
Credit LineBlanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin, Anonymous gift, 2003.14.a-b
Rights Statement
Collection AreaPrints and Drawings
Object number2003.14.a-b
On View
Not on viewDuring Brazil’s military dictatorship of 1964–85, Cildo Meireles used preexisting systems of circulation to critique symbols of national identity and disseminate subversive messages while evading censorship. Here he printed his own “worthless” money, stripping away its exchange value to reveal its symbolic value. For “Zero Dollar,” he replaced former presidents with Uncle Sam, recognizable everywhere as a patriotic, patriarchal, and patronizing symbol of the United States. On the reverse is Fort Knox, a reference to the U.S. government’s role in setting the value of currency and its power in the global economy.
Exhibitions
