"Blue Dogs" – Michael Dal Cerro. Wood block print. 2009.

With good reason, health care reform has become a major topic in the United States. Patricia Dahlman and a number of like minded artists have created an online exhibition, Art for Health Care Reform, which addresses just some of the issues.

"To Your Health" – Deborah Harris. Linoleum block print. 2009.

Hate At Tate – Billy Childish. 2009. Poster "against cultural fascism" that announces “National Art Hate Week”, an event promoted by The British Art Resistance. Small text reads, “National Art Hate Week: Programme 2009. Morning HATE commences 10.30 am Daily. Picasso, Rothko, Doig. Evening HATE at 6.00 pm (Wednesday and Thursday only). Hirst, Koons, Warhol.”

The British Art Resistance (B.A.R.) has organized National Art Hate Week for “the disruptive betterment of culture” and for purposes of giving UK bourgeois art institutions “a necessary kicking.”  Sarcastically modeled after the two-minute hate rallies found in George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984, Art Hate events will encourage people to express contempt for “the business of culture” as well as those who feed at the trough of the postmodern culture industry.

Art Hate actions are to be held on the steps of the Tate Modern and the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, the National Gallery of Scotland, and other select locations. In part, a statement of intent released by the B.A.R. reads as follows:

“National Art Hate Week takes the symbol of the swastika hung from a gallows as an emblem of resistance against cultural fascism as disseminated by the bureaucrats of art.

National Art Hate Week is a call for direct action against the mass acceptance of art as a phantom economy for the smug manipulative elite and their ensuing grip of control over culture as a tool for mediated emotion, market lead non-critical homogeny, and boring popularism.

National Art Hate Week presents a unified front of non-unified creative individuals against all that is despicable and loved by the people. We oppose the deliberate socio-economic strategy to make us all complicit in our own idiocy. We oppose the affront of state endorsed auto-cryptic balderdash and oppose the ruffians who have been pulled from the ghetto and polished up for elevated status and easy consumption by the masses.”

National Art Hate Anthem – Jamie Reid. 2009. Record sleeve art for a limited edition 7" vinyl single produced in conjunction with the Art Hate campaign. The single was recorded by the group, Silent Revolt (Harry Adams, James Cauty, Billy Childish). A parody of songs by the Sex Pistols, side one is titled "Pretty Vacant Art Hate", and side two – which is blank – is titled, "God Save Marcel Duchamp." Jamie Reid designed the iconic graphics for the Sex Pistols back in 1977.

If that is not clear enough, then the ensuing bit of propaganda from B.A.R. will certainly not help you in the least. The following excerpted outburst appears with its original spelling:

“such a time comes when the distinction between art and high finance has become so foggy and moribund that one has eaten and consumed the other leaving only a bloodless husk – as if a particularly veniminous spyder had swung from its web and suck’t the life essence out of an otherwise joyiously singing cricket.

and so the word ‘art’, which is a mear label or ‘catchword’ as it were, has by subtle manipulation been inverted, bit by bit, to mean its direct oppersit. what that direct oppersit is i do not venture to answer. but it could possably be termed ‘financial anti-art’, or ‘bankers dada.’

in just such epochs heros of a mythical nature are apt to step forth. Not dressed for war but never-the-less cloth’d in poetry. that these heros will be melighn’d and slandered by the cultural elite is the mark of their true worth and necessity.”

For more information, visit the British Art Resistance website, and read the UK Guardian’s article, National Art Hate Week needs you.

An unavoidable political topic is on the lips of everyone in the art world these days, I am not speaking of the U.S. presidential election - but of an international economic meltdown the likes of which we have not seen since the Great Depression of the 1930s. No matter what “new” political circumstances we wake up to in the aftermath of election day, the reality of economic disintegration will still be staring us in the face. That fact will be shaping the world of art from top to bottom for many years to come, raising some important questions that artists will have to meet head-on, not the least of which is, how will artists be able to sell their works - an already difficult process - under the extremely tough conditions imposed by an economic catastrophe?

A number of artists have already begun responding to the crisis of capitalism. Artist Geoffrey Raymond has been painting large “annotated” portraits of the powerful individuals involved in the Wall Street crash, men like Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke and former Lehman Brothers chief Richard Fuld, setting the portraits up on Wall Street and allowing the public to scribble their remarks directly on the paintings. Printmaker and painter Laura Gilbert also brought her art to Wall Street, passing out signed and numbered “Zero Dollar” prints outside of the New York Stock Exchange. The imitation dollar bills display a zero instead of the numeral one. Gilbert said her prints were a comment on “the destructive role of many financial institutions, inflation and the decline of U.S. currency to the point of seeming worthlessness.”

On October 29, 2008, the 79th anniversary of the stock market crash that heralded the Great Depression of 1929, artists Nora Ligorano and Marshall Reese set up a piece of installation art close to the heart of Wall Street. Using the New York Supreme Court building as a back drop, the Ligorano/Reese installation consisted of giant blocks of ice carved into letters that together spelled, ECONOMY. Titled Main Street Meltdown, the 15 foot long, 5 foot high, 1,500 pound ice sculpture was allowed to thaw on the street amongst the bustling crowds of bewildered Wall Streeters. Ligorano/Reese stated on their website; “To see the word ‘economy’ melting down is representational of an extreme time.”

Ligorano and Reese are certainly correct about our living in a period of severe calamity, and their works, along with those of Geoffrey Raymond and Laura Gilbert, represent a laudable step forward for an art world that for far too long has been mired in frivolity and hampered by an obsession with money and fame. At the same time I maintain that much more needs to be done to extricate art from its current impasse. Artists must become socially engaged and cognizant of world realities if we are to produce profound and lasting works of art for the 21st century.

The quandary faced by contemporary artists coping with economic breakdown also extends to the gallery system and elite art institutions. In her Oct 19, 2008 article for the New York Times, Museums Fear Lean Days Ahead, art critic Carol Vogel wrote that museum directors across the country are;

“…bracing for the effects of an economic crisis that could change everything from the size and kinds of exhibitions a museum presents to the acquisitions it could afford and the merchandise it should offer in its shops. Already the financial-market meltdown has diminished the endowment funds that cover museums’ day-to-day operating expenses. Lehman Brothers, for years a crucial sponsor for museums across the country, is no more. Surviving banking institutions and corporations that also have been the bedrock of exhibition support are likely to give far less or cut off gifts altogether.”

In his Oct 24, 2008 article for New York Magazine, Frieze After the Frieze, art critic Jerry Saltz noted the mood at the recent London Frieze Art Fair - and by extension, the temper of the elite art world in general. Saltz wrote the following:

“As I made my way through the 152 booths, I thought about the moment in Titanic when the designer of the doomed luxury liner warns Kate Winslet to find a lifeboat because ‘all this will be at the bottom of the Atlantic.’ (….) Recessions are hard on people, but they are not hard on art. The forties, seventies, and the nineties, when money was scarce, were great periods, when the art world retracted but it was also reborn. New generations took the stage; new communities spawned energy; things opened up; deadwood washed away. With luck, New Museum curator Laura Hoptman’s wish will come true: ‘Art will flower and triumph not as a hobby, an investment, or a career, but as what it is and was—a life.’”

Saltz’s article touched upon a belief that I have long held - that great art comes from trying and chaotic times. It behooves today’s artists to study the life and works of those painters who lived through the Great Depression of the 1930s, such scrutiny can perhaps serve as a starting point for our own responses to a world beset by economic wrack and ruin. But we cannot hope to simply replicate - both figuratively and literally - the works of those artists who preceded us. We must concoct our own aesthetic responses to meet the challenges of the present.

In a major trial that challenged an artist’s right to free expression, the British artist Michael Dickinson, who lives in Turkey, was prosecuted by the Turkish government in 2006 for creating a photo-collage seen as “insulting the dignity of the prime minister”. Dickinson faced years in prison for his artwork, but on September 25, 2008, the judge in the case dropped all criminal charges against him.

In part Dickinson’s release was secured by global protests initiated by artists. A member of the Stuckist International - the “art movement for contemporary figurative painting with ideas”, Dickinson received immediate backing from Stuckism’s London headquarters. Charles Thomson, co-founder of the Stuckists, wrote a widely publicized letter to the former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, in which Thomson stated: “It is intolerable that a country applying for European Union membership should censor freedom of political comment in this way. I trust you will communicate your strongest condemnation and ask for this case to be abandoned immediately.” Thomson also sent a similar letter to the current British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown.

But Michael Dickinson’s predicament was also noted by others. I followed Dickinson’s trial closely, and when Mark Givens, the editor-in-chief of MungBeing arts journal in Pomona, California, started a worldwide petition to call for the release of Dickinson - I became a signatory. In part, the petition stated:

“We, the undersigned, support an artist’s right of free expression. We stand firmly with Amnesty International in their calls on the Turkish authorities to terminate without delay all prosecutions against individuals under the notorious Article 301, and to abolish all other articles in the Turkish Penal Code that stifle and punish freedom of speech and expression. We call for the prosecution of Michael Dickinson over his political collages to be dropped.”

In Southern California’s Inland Empire Weekly, Kevin Ausmus’ article, Pomona editor helps keep British artist out of jail, summarizes the successful campaign waged by Givens to free Michael Dickinson. An except from that story reads:

“After hearing of Dickinson’s plight, Mark Givens of Pomona, editor-in-chief of MungBeing, decided it was necessary to start an online petition on the artist’s behalf. Now, Givens’ ‘tremendous support’ in publicizing the case is being credited for galvanizing the necessary publicity to tip the verdict in Dickinson’s favor (….) Though the petition gathered less than 600 signatures overall, those who did sign proved to be of high quality in the international art community, including Steve Bell, a British political cartoonist for the Guardian known for his controversial caricatures; Mark Vallen, a Los Angeles-based painter and activist; Noam Chomsky and several artists associated with the Turkish Freedom Movement.”

When facing the seemingly insurmountable problems of today’s world, it is not difficult to see why some surrender to hopelessness and indifference. However, it should not go without saying that our actions, or lack thereof - do make a difference; which has been amply demonstrated by the successful defense of Mr. Dickinson.

I support the strike now being waged by the Writers Guild of America (WGA) against the six gigantic media corporations that call themselves the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). Since Nov. 5, 2007, 12,000 writers have been on strike over the issue of fair compensation for their works being broadcast on the internet. Currently writers receive nothing from the studios when their works are downloaded or streamed online, and the conglomerates hope to continue refusing writers any percentage of the billions of dollars in profits that will be made in years to come through online distribution. As of Dec. 7, the AMPTP walked away from negotiations with the WGA, insisting that the writer’s union drop six of their demands before discussion could proceed. Striking writers have suspended their picket lines for the holidays - but picketing will resume January 7.

Why should an independent visual artist be concerned with the affairs of writers who create content for the U.S. film and television industry? On a personal level, I feel kinship with all those who are involved in cultural output - whether musicians, photographers, dancers, painters, writers, etc., since we share certain commonalities as creative individuals. As the ones who generate art and culture in society, we should not only be aware of our common bonds - we should support and work with each other as natural allies. As with all of the artistic disciplines, it’s very difficult to make a living as a writer. At present it is nearly impossible to have a gainful career as a novelist, playwright, or poet, and as a result, many skilled and talented individuals who are driven to pursue writing because they love it and are dedicated to the craft - have come to write for movies and television. If the gigantic media corporations defeat this strike and the process of corporate monopolization intensifies, it will become increasingly arduous to maintain a life as a writer.

The writer’s strike is not simply their fight alone, the justness of their cause should be apparent to every person who labors for a salary, and it really boils down to one simple question - should workers receive proper compensation for their toil? The six media monopoly giants that make up the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers consist of General Electric (which owns NBC), Time Warner (which owns CNN and Warner Bros.), the Walt Disney Company (which owns ABC), Viacom (which owns Paramount and is itself owned by billionaire media mogul, Sumner Redstone), News Corporation (which owns Fox), and CBS Corporation (also owned by Sumner Redstone). That these powerful conglomerates own the nation’s media, from newspapers, radio, and television to movie and TV studios, generating hundreds of billions of dollars in profits - give the lie to their claims that they can’t “afford” to meet the writer’s demands. The estimated corporate revenue from digital streaming alone in the next 2 years is $3 Billion, with not a single penny of those super profits going to writers.

There are some on the sidelines who have turned their backs on the writer’s strike, insisting that the writers don’t deserve support because of the distractive and escapist quality of corporate television programming. While it’s true commercial TV offers few broadcasts of a sophisticated or educational nature, repudiating the writers strike entirely misses the point. Workers in the “fast food” industry are not exactly known for creating and dishing out haute cuisine, but are they not entitled to decent working conditions and fair compensation for their labor? If you work for a living, you should be duly remunerated. The overwhelming majority of writers in the Hollywood industry work on a freelance basis and live and work from paycheck to paycheck. During any given year around half of WGA’s members are unemployed.

If the AMPTP breaks the writer’s strike they will have succeeded in drastically altering labor relations in Hollywood, clearing the way for assaults on wages and conditions for all workers in the television and film industry. The stakes in this strike are much higher than most people realize. On Dec. 19, 2007, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted to do away with a ban that prevented corporations from owning multiple newspapers and TV and radio stations in the same market. The FCC ruling now makes it possible for corporations, like the six media monopoly giants that make up the AMPTP, to acquire and control even more of the nation’s media outlets.

Equitable compensation for writers regarding the use of new media in the Hollywood motion picture and television industry is the focus of this strike - but there are other issues to ponder as well. The question of monopolization and the corporate stranglehold upon the cultural life of the nation should be on everyone’s mind. How did a handful of megacorporations come to hold so much power over the nation’s art and culture and what can we do about it? Joining in solidarity with the WGA should be a first step. When the striking writer’s picket lines resume in the new year, everyone concerned with fair play, justice, and the democratization of culture, should join them - I know I will.

The group, Saffron Revolution Worldwide (SRW) has created stencil art in support of the people’s uprising for democracy in Burma, also known as Myanmar. SRW encourages groups and individuals around the world to download the stencil template, utilizing it to create spray-paint stencil art in deep orange paint as an expression of solidarity with Burma’s marching monks. If making stencil art is not quite your speed, then consider signing, Stand With The Burmese Protesters, an online petition in support of the Burmese freedom struggle that will be sent to United Nations Security Council members.

[ Free Burma stencil art - available from Saffron Revolution Worldwide. ]

Recent bloody events in Burma/Myanmar, have shocked people around the world. The present crisis began on August 19th when a popular uprising broke out over rising fuel costs. The revolt soon spread and took on the character of a mass rebellion. Enormous throngs took to the streets calling for democracy and an end to the military regime that has ruled the country for 45 years. The revered Buddhist monks of the nation have spearheaded the demonstrations, with tens of thousands marching in their sandals and saffron colored robes - in fact, their stunning visual presence and moral authority has caused the uprising to be hailed as the “Saffron Revolution.”

In an effort to crush the movement, the generals that run the country gave “shoot to kill” orders to the army. At the time of this posting, the military regime now admits to having shot dead 10 pro-democracy activists, but opposition forces say that upwards of 200 have been killed so far. The army has also implemented a severe crackdown against the Buddhists, vandalizing and occupying their monasteries as well as arresting and beating monks. Two good starting points to learn about the situation in Myanmar/Burma, are the websites of the Free Burma Coalition (FBC), and the Burmese American Democratic Alliance (BADA).

Professional artists and students of design, historians, sociologists and enthusiasts of poster art, all will go mad over the latest collection of political posters compiled into book form - Visions of Peace & Justice. With over 400 full color reproductions, the anthology presents more than 30 years worth of archived posters printed by Inkworks Press, which also happens to be the publisher of the book and one of America’s oldest worker-run print shops.

[ Support Striking Miners in Stearns, Kentucky - Poster design by Rachael Romero of the San Francisco Poster Brigade. 1977. Street poster announcing a benefit concert and film showing for Kentucky’s coal miners. ]

Flipping through the pages of this anthology is like taking a walk through recent American history, and whatever your politics, you’re sure to be impressed by the scope of issues addressed by the posters as well as their overall sophisticated aesthetics. Divided into sections based on theme, the book organizes posters under the chapter headings of: Internationalism & Peace, Labor Movement, Racial Justice, Women’s Liberation, Queer Liberation, Environment & Public Health, Elections & Reforms, Arts & Culture.

[ Mother Jones - Rupert Garcia. 1989. Garcia’s portrait of the American radical labor organizer, Mother Jones, was commissioned by Mother Jones magazine. ]

Inkworks Press was founded in the San Francisco Bay area of California in 1974, well past the high-water mark of 60’s activism, but you’d hardly know that by looking at the wide array of posters in the collective’s self-published book. Just about every issue, cause celeb or world event near and dear to progressives is represented in this sweeping collection. While the worker-run shop printed posters for groups and individuals from outside of the Bay area, most of the cooperative’s jobs were printed for local clients - making this anthology an indispensable documentation of the Bay area community’s leftwing culture between the years of 1974 through 2007.

[ La Peña: 15 Years of Cultural Activism for Social Justice - Leon Sun. 1990. Poster celebrating Berkeley’s famous cultural community center. ]

I have my own growing collection of political posters and flyers that I’ve been vigorously accumulating for decades now, and a good portion of my archives are comprised of works that come from the San Francisco Bay area. I’ve had the good fortune to acquire original silkscreen posters by Doug Minkler, Rupert Garcia, the San Francisco Poster Brigade, the Fireworks Graphics collective, and many other notable artists and art collectives from the region - and all have outstanding entries in the published compilation by Inkworks. The volume also features insightful essays by author and archivist Lincoln Cushing (editor of the book), photographer David Bacon, activists Angela Davis and Anuradha Mittal, the director of the Center for the Study of Political Graphics, Carol Wells, and others. You can purchase the book from Amazon.com.

Turning the Frida Kahlo legacy into a brand name tequila is the final straw when it comes to the “Fridamania” cult promoted by the unscrupulous capitalists the artist railed against her entire life. Isolda P. Kahlo, the niece of the famed Mexican painter and the founder of “The Frida Kahlo Corporation,” is marketing Frida Kahlo Tequila, claiming the right to license products using the artist’s name and image. The clear glass bottles of tequila are ornamented with a portrait photo of Kahlo on the label, her image surrounded by garlands of flowers, and a wooden bottle stopper engraved with the artist’s image.

The Los Angeles Center for the Study of Political Graphics (CSPG), with funding in part from the LA Cultural Affairs Department, presents an exhibition of rare posters published by Peace Press of Venice California. The exhibit will be held at LA Valley College in the San Fernando Valley. The CSPG press release describes their exhibit this way:

“Peace Press was founded in 1967 by Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and The Resistance to give a printed voice to dissent. During its two decades as the most progressive print shop in Los Angeles, Peace Press printed for more than three hundred organizations, including the United Farm Workers, Daniel Ellsberg Defense Committee, Black Panther Party, Free Angela Davis Committee, Alliance for Survival, American Indian Movement, Earth Day, the Free Venice Collective, and various groups advocating solidarity with Central America. A selection of these posters and other materials printed by Peace Press will be displayed.”

This exhibition will be an amazing opportunity, especially for young people, to examine the fiery and controversial protest posters of the 1960’s and 70’s. Ranging from the psychedelic to the politically militant, the posters offer great insight into just how divided America became during that period. Interestingly enough, my very first public poster creation is included in the exhibition.

Late last February I received a call from Carol Wells, the executive director of CSPG. She was inquiring about a certain poster produced in 1971, and wanted to verify that I was indeed the artist responsible for its design, an achievement I readily admitted. I had created that poster when I was an angry 17 year old, and the context in which I produced the artwork is extremely important.

Millions of Americans had already taken to the streets to protest the bloody Vietnam war. The massacre of hundreds of Vietnamese civilians at the hands of US troops had occurred at the village of My Lai. Nixon’s invasion of Cambodia in 1970 set off student protests across the country -resulting in the shootings at Kent State University. On May 3 1970 National Guard troops shot 13 antiwar protestors at Kent, killing 4 of them. Just two days earlier Nixon had referred to student antiwar protestors as, “bums”.

My pre-Watergate poster bore the legend, “Evict Nixon” (click for large image), and was a montage of hand-drawn ink portraits of Nixon surrounding an ominous rendering of Adolph Hitler. The implication was that Nixon was a war criminal who had the US on the fast track to authoritarianism, which was certainly true, but my comparing the two leaders was an inaccurate choice that I chalk up to youthful indiscretion.

Since that time I have repudiated such an approach and even shy away from lambasting specific politicians, as I see our collective problems as systemic rather than the fault of individuals. However, my poster did capture the temper of the time. I recall having 1000 copies of my 17″ x 22″ poster printed at Peace Press, and then distributing them for free at a mass demonstration in Los Angeles against the Vietnam war.

My posters were eagerly snatched up and carried in the march of several thousand. This was the beginning of my vocation as an artist concerned with creating and disseminating socially conscious public art. I’ll never forget being taken aside by a young women at that protest who lectured me on how my poster was “bourgeois” since it called for Nixon’s eviction rather than overthrow. Ah, those were the days.

In the end my radical poster statement was vindicated. Nixon’s megalomania and paranoia destroyed him. He had orchestrated a huge campaign of repression against the anti-Vietnam war movement that included the drawing up an “enemies list” of opponents, ordering wiretaps and spying on reporters and activists, and finally directing the break-in and bugging of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate Hotel - the act that ultimately brought him down.

In July 1974, the House Judiciary Committee approved three articles of impeachment, resolving that Nixon be “impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors.” In August of that year, “Tricky Dick” resigned rather than face impeachment. The Posters of Peace Press exhibit opens on March 12th, 2005 and runs until May 5th. The Opening Reception will be Saturday, March 12, from 1 - 5 pm. There will also be a panel discussion on the topic of “Using Graphics to Agitate, Educate and Organize” on Sat. March 12th, from 3 - 4:30 pm. Los Angeles Valley College is located at 5800 Fulton Ave. Van Nuys, CA 91401-4096. For campus info, call: 818-778-5536 or 818-778-3536. Campus Art Gallery hours are: M - Th, 11 - 2 pm & 7 - 9 pm. Saturdays, 2 - 5 pm (Closed Fridays, Sundays and Holidays).