General

Happy holidays and…

ByMark Vallen November 25, 2014

African American | Art of War | General

My Country Right or Wrong
ByMark Vallen May 30, 2005October 5, 2022

African American artist, Cliff Joseph, was the co-founder of the 1960’s Black Emergency Cultural Coalition in New York, an artist’s group involved in creating socially conscious artworks. Joseph’s oil on canvas painting, titled My Country Right or Wrong was created in 1968 at the height of America’s war on Vietnam. The artwork derided the blind patriotism that made the war…

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General

Mary Magdalene is from Afghanistan?
ByMark Vallen February 28, 2006June 6, 2023

Apparently St. Mary Magdalene was from Afghanistan. While looking through an online edition of the Washington Post I discovered an article they ran about Mary Magdalene, which was accompanied by the illustration shown below. The graphic had the following caption: “This handout image released by the Grace Cathedral shows an icon of St. Mary Magdalene, the principal woman disciple of…

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General | Postmodernism-Remodernism

The Red Pope Meets Piss Christ
ByMark Vallen July 1, 2023July 1, 2023

In the Vatican City State on June 23, 2023, beneath Michelangelo’s High Renaissance mural in the Sistine Chapel, Pope Francis addressed some 200 invited artists and creative types. One attendee was Andres Serrano—maker of the infamous Piss Christ photograph and other sacrilegious images. I’m not writing this essay as a practicing Catholic, but as a working artist. The Pontiff’s assembly…

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American Art | General

Hunter Biden & the Aztecs
ByMark Vallen April 5, 2023April 5, 2023

What new works has the eminent world renown artist Hunter Biden been working on lately? As reported by the New York Post, he has just finished “an intricately patterned painting of an Aztec god.” When it comes to Aztec deities Hunter But didn’t pick just any old god, he went right for “the big guy.” I instantly recognized the deity…

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Art of War | General

Archaeology Awareness Playing Cards
ByMark Vallen June 20, 2007June 11, 2009

During the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, the Pentagon released to American troops a wanted list of Iraqi leaders that came in the form of a deck of cards. The playing cards featured photos and information about various government henchmen, and were designed to help U.S. troops identify and capture members of Saddam Hussein’s regime. Now, four years after the…

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General

Origins of the “Clenched Fist” image
ByMark Vallen January 29, 2006November 3, 2022

The militant symbol of the clenched fist has been around since the early 1900’s, springing up in graphics from Mexico and the US, to Europe and Russia. Typically depicted as part of the human figure, holding tools or other symbols, or breaking through a barricade, the iconographic fist underwent a change at some point in the 1960’s; it became an…

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