What's good for the goose...
"A recently released painting of President Barack Obama holding a burning copy of the U.S. Constitution has seemingly set the political world on fire as well.
Jon McNaughton’s picture, titled "One Nation Under Socialism" shows the president with a furrowed brow and hardened face and appearing decidedly unfazed by the flames licking closely to him as the Constitution is torched."
Read the Salt Lake Trib report
here.
The LAT's Christopher Knight, who one can safely assume (from reading his extensive and eloquent criticism - often touching on political art) is left of the political centerline, calls it
junk, and that is certainly his opinion as a respected critic to deliver (although Knight accidentally reveals a little of his personal critical agenda when he feels obligated to expand that "the painting is junk (yes, junk) not because its style is realist or anti-Modern or the image is pandering or inflammatory."
Knight just sort of showed his cards here a little. Would he have ever written "the painting is junk (yes, junk) not because its style is abstract or Post Modern or the image is pandering or inflammatory."
Naw... This inner look at Knight's personal art agenda is also nothing that is not easy to learn from this giant of the art world once you read a few dozen of his reviews. Also note how he cleverly diminishes the artwork itself by calling it an "illustration."
But where Knight steps over the line, again revealing his personal contribution to the ugly side of American political discourse, is when -- in the context of doing an art review (I think) -- he then gets a little too personal (in my opinion) and somewhat goes after the artist himself, rather than after the art.
Replace Obama with Bush and the Constitution with ... ahhh... the Constitution, and a whole different discourse about the artsyness of the painting would be happening right now.
I get a little bit of chills when we start going after people rather than critically going after their artwork. Regardless of where you stand on the political minefield of contemporary American politics, the one thing that we as Americans should agree on is the freedom for all artists to use their talents to depict whatever drives their inner fires, and if it's OK for countless artists to use their talents to vilify the previous President, so it is OK for them to demonize (or praise) the current one and whoever comes after President Obama.
The artist's website is here. This is clearly an artist with a political agenda wedded to a religious one. The fact that his artwork is caustically anti-Obama does what any political agenda in art does: offend a lot of people and also align you with a lot of people who already felt like you do when it comes to politics.
Doesn't justify going after the artist, be him or her a right wing artist or a left wing artist.
And we all then breathe a sigh of relief thanks to people like artist
Dan Lacey, who can use the power of art to make fun of anything!.
I recently had the honor and pleasure of reviewing a lot of gorgeous artwork for the Capitol Hill Art League's May juried competition. As usual, this is hard but rewarding work.
