An Updated Art For A Change Blog!

ByMark Vallen

On March 13, 2023, a brand new redesigned version of the Art For A Change blog was uploaded. Along with a revamped design, it offers larger images, clearer text, and improved navigation. Specifically reconfigured for cell phone users, it is a long overdue step into the future.

I am astonished to think that I published my very first post on the Art For A Change blog on Nov. 27, 2004. Titled Billionaires Hold Art Hostage, it was a full-throated criticism against New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) for increasing their admission charges by sixty-seven percent. Not surprisingly that critical disposition is still prominent on this blog.

It is also incredible to consider that in 2004 Facebook had just begun operating, with a slim majority of users having fast internet connections—55% of internet users had broadband at home or work at the time. Likewise, Twitter was only founded in 2006. Back then the internet promised freedom, but at present the Tech giants are delivering censorship and memocide.

The reconstruction of my entire blog constellation is complete.

I oppose the censorious banalization of art and the internet, and I shall continue to publish stories on Art For A Change that are ignored or not found elsewhere. So, my “Last Train to Snarksville” style of art criticism continues with new life on this blog. Buckle up time travelers… the future is here!

Similar Posts

|

At the Guggenheim: RUSSIA!

ByMark Vallen

RUSSIA! a massive exhibition covering 900 years of Russian history, is now running at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City until January 11th, 2006. While the show includes everything from 13th-century religious icons to the most current artistic expressions coming out of the country, what I personally find most interesting are those paintings and artistic expressions that were kept from…

Eco-Extremists Attack Xmas Trees!
| |

Eco-Extremists Attack Xmas Trees!

ByMark Vallen

O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum, How faithfully you blossom! Through summer’s heat and winter’s chill Your leaves are green and blooming still. O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum, How faithfully you blossom! The above lyrics are from an 1824 song written by German composer Ernst Anschütz. Over the years his composition O Tannenbaum (in German ‘Tannenbaum’ means fir tree), became closely associated with…

Artists & The Vietnam War

ByMark Vallen

April 30th, 2005, marks the 30th anniversary of the US defeat in Vietnam. As a twenty two year old in 1975, I commemorated the end of the war by creating a large oil painting simply titled, Vietnam. The preliminary sketch for that painting is reproduced at left. The Vietnamese peasant woman portrayed in my artwork glances at you with cold…

Yue Minjun: Execution

ByMark Vallen

At London’s Sotheby’s auction house on Oct. 12, 2007, just as Execution, a painting by contemporary Chinese artist Yue Minjun was about to go on the auction block, a man seated in the auction hall leapt to his feet and began shouting; “Shame on all of you! You’re spending millions of pounds on art and the world is falling apart!…

Bush & the 2007 Venice Biennale

ByMark Vallen

It’s more than a little interesting that the most reactionary administration in America’s history would nominate an openly Gay conceptual artist to be a symbol for the “excellence, vitality, and diversity of the arts in the United States.” The Bush State Department has chosen Felix Gonzalez-Torres to represent the U.S. at the 2007 Venice Biennale, and what a wise pick…