Going Negative: How Artists Are Engaging With the 2012 Presidential Election

October 04, 2012 10:37 am

Going Negative: How Artists Are Engaging With the 2012 Presidential Election Language English Email Print Save Tweet Pin It Photo Gallery: Slideshow: Election-Related Artby Sara RoffinoPublished: October 4, 2012

Four years ago, just over half of all Americans were in the midst of the ecstatic, Obama-induced euphoria of hope and change. People rallied and canvassed and registered voters in cities covered in images of Shepard Fairey's "Hope" printed on everything from lighters and mugs to sides of buildings the world over. Fairey’s image became the image of the election, the visual representation of the time’s exuberance, and emotional fuel for the exhausting campaign. It also powerfully symbolized the art community's investment in Obama.

Fairey’s image was just one of countless Obama-inspired artworks to emerge from the election. Ron English’s “Abraham Obama” found a prominent place among the Obama-art ranks, as did Robert Indiana’s “HOPE” sculpture, raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for the Obama campaign. Artists for Obama put together a portfolio of prints by 13 iconic American artists, which sold for a donation of $20,000 and Obama's website sold prints by 10 different artists, some for as little as $60. There was also enough Obama street and folk art to fill dozens websites and at least a few books, like the 2009 “Art for Obama: Designing the Campaign for Change” edited by Fairey and Jennifer Gross.

Cut to 2012. In the run-up to the November election, it is not surprising that the art world — like most of America — is frustrated, or that it is back to wavering between ambivalence, fear, and desperation, but it is surprising that the response has been so tepid, considering there is so much at stake for artists and institutions whose survival is dependent on the federal funding Republican Mitt Romney has said he’ll slash. Artists are helping to garner funds for the cause, but with few exceptions, the art world response to the 2012 election is decidedly mild, and the work that does stand out is more anti-Romney than pro-Obama. 

When Minneapolis's Walker Art Center hosted an Obama fundraiser last March, there was hope that other art institutions might follow suit and take a public political stance. Surpringly, none did though Artists for Obama put together another portfolio with prints by 19 renowned artists which can be acquired in exchange for a donation of $28,000. For those a little more flush, Chuck Close is selling Obama tapestries starting at $100,000 to benefit the campaign. 

In the next few weeks, three election-related shows will take place in New York. Jonathan Horowitz’s “Your Land/My Land: Election ’12” is the reimagined installation of his 2008 show, an examination of divisions within American society. According to Horowitz, the 2008 divisions were along racial and gender lines, but in 2012, the disunity falls along the lines of economic disparity (which pretty much goes hand-in-hand with racial disparity, so we’re not quite sure how this show will be different than the last one).

Concurrently, the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation presents “We the People,” a group show of work by 55 artists exploring who, exactly, the “American people” are. Though intended to challenge the limited tropes of American identity into which people are often boxed, the show — while interesting and well-curated — feels more sociological than overtly political, especially with Richard Phillips’s giant Romney portrait hanging over the space.

A surprising show in Ghent, New York is one of the more strikingly political of 2012 election exhibitions on the East Coast. “Vote for Me and I’ll Set You Free” presents historical political works, ranging from an engraving of the Declaration of Independence to Skylar Fein’s, “Black Flag,” all sourced from the personal collection of one-percenter and MoMA trustee Lawrence B. Benenson. Though the unexpected provenance of this show undoubtedly contributes to its political significance, the historical context the show creates, as well as the inclusion of pieces like Antoni Muntadas’s “Warning,” suggest a thoughtful and critical overview of the American political system.

If Fairey's “Hope” poster was the most noted works of political art during the last election, in 2012, one of the more high-profile works also comes from a street artist: New York City was graced with a lone act of anti-Romney sky graffiti a few weeks back. In response to Romney's statements about cutting millions of dollars in funding for art, L.A.-based street artist Saber had an airplane fly over Manhattan writing messages like "Protect NPR PBS NEA from cuts" in massive letters of smoke. While monumental, it also illustrated the defensive tone of much of the election art this time around.

A similar pattern plays out on the West Coast, where Katherine Cone Gallery’s “Legitimate Rape” opens next week. Like the title of the show, all works in “Legitimate Rape” are brazenly opinionated — and all but one are anti-Romney. Photographer Jill Greenberg’s “Entitled,” is a video of white men laughing with text like “We rape companies, legitimately” running across the top of the screen (in 2008, Greenberg caused a stir when she released some unauthorized images of John McCain as a blood-thirsty shark, based on a photo shoot she'd done of him for the Atlantic). Greenberg’s video premiered on the side of a building in Tampa during the RNC, though just for a brief moment.

And, just when we thought Shepard Fairey was entirely abandoning the 2012 election (his latest non-political design, inspired by the folk-rock classic “High Flyin Bird,” goes on sale today) we learned about ART > MONEY: Design to Define a Movement, a design competition bringing attention to the toxicity of big money in politics. Fairey is a judge of the competition, which seeks to draw attention to the baleful influence of SuperPACs in politics, and which is open until October 11. Prizes include public display of the winning image, and up to $3,000 in cash. A pretty sweet deal if you ask us. So why were there only 49 entries last time we checked?

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