These hand-reproduced posters, first distributed across the country and abroad were created to support the founding and defense of the new Republic. As the collective wrote in their 1947 foreword: “…perjuangan kami dengan poster untuk mendirikan dan memelihara kemerdekaan negeri kami.”
Indonesia declares independence on August 17, 1945. Amid political chaos and the return of Dutch colonial forces, artists begin organizing to support the revolution.
Fighting intensifies across the archipelago. The Republic moves its capital to Yogyakarta. Artists rally to mobilize the masses through imagery.
The First Dutch Military Aggression (Agresi Militer I) begins in July. As tensions rise, visual propaganda becomes a critical political weapon.
Though P.T.P.I. eventually dissolves, its role marks a turning point: from individual painters to collective, politically engaged art-making.
