Category: Social and Political Struggles
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René Magritte’s unthinkable thoughts
In the tragic aftermath of World War I, Magritte turned his back on Academic history painting. Instead, he shows us life’s ambiguities, depicted in witty and thought-provoking ways.
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Miriam Schapiro: Feminism in pieces
Inspired by the Women’s Movement, Schapiro challenged the art world by developing “femmage”—a striking mix of paint and fabric that celebrates the intimate stories of women.
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Jean Dubuffet’s stranger things
Following WWII, French artist Jean Dubuffet mixed paint with whatever he could scrounge up: string, tar, gravel, shards of glass. “Art should make us laugh a little and fear a little,” he said.
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Artist Betye Saar tells ghost stories
Saar creates hauntingly beautiful works of art that seduce us into thinking deeply about race. She is one of the first artists to confront the chasm between the colonizer and the colonized.
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Why isn’t Norman Lewis famous?
The first American art movement to achieve global recognition promised limitless artistic freedom. But limitless for whom? How many Black Abstract Expressionists can you name?
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Sheeler, Rivera, and the art of industry
Charles Sheeler and Diego Rivera both celebrated Henry Ford’s groundbreaking River Rouge Plant. Does their work exalt machine efficiency? Or warn us about living in a tech-driven society?
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George Bellows: Last stop, 59th Street
The lone tenement beneath New York City’s Queensboro Bridge looks strikingly out of place. Is it real? Or is it an architectural ghost, haunting the land where a neighborhood used to be?