Art and Politics
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Contemporary art is increasingly concerned with swaying the opinions of its viewer. To do so, the art employs various strategies to convey a political message. This book provides readers with the tools to decode and appreciate political art, a crucial and understudied direction in post-war art. From the postwar works of Pablo Picasso and Alexander Deineka to the Border Film Project and web-based works of Beatriz da Costa, Art and Politics: a Small History of Art for Social Change since 1945 considers how artists visual or otherwise have engaged with major political and grassroots movements, particularly after 1960. With its broad definition of the political, this book features chapters on post colonialism, feminism, the anti-war movement, environmentalism, gay rights and anti-globalization. It charts how individual artworks reverberated with enormous ideological shifts. While emphasizing the West, Art and Politics takes global developments into account as well - looking at art production practiced by postcolonial African, Latin American and Middle Eastern artists. Its case-study approach to the subject provides the reader with an overview of a most complex subject. This book will also challenge its readers to consider often devalued and marginalized political artworks as properly part of the history of modern and contemporary art.
Making Art in Prison: Survival and Resistance
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In Making Art in Prison: Survival and Resistance, Janie Paulintroduces readers to the culture and aesthetics of prison artcommunities, and shares heart wrenching, poignant, and oftensurprisingly humorous artists' narratives. The United States is the most incarcerating nation in the world. More thantwo million people are locked behind bars, where they endure thedegradation and violence of a dehumanizing system. But in prisons aroundthe country, incarcerated people have regained their dignity bycreating objects of beauty, meaning, and value. These powerful stories and images upendthe manufactured stereotypes of those living in prison, imparting areal human dimension--a critical step in the movement to end massincarceration. For 27 years, Paul has traveled throughout Michigan to meet artistsand select work for the project she co-founded: The Annual Exhibitionsof Artists in Michigan Prisons, an initiative of the Prison CreativeArts Project at the University of Michigan. Pedagogical as well ascuratorial, the project has provided crucial validation for the artists.Making Prison Art features over 200 images of their extraordinary work. Delving deeply into the ways in which incarcerated artists createmeaning through their artistic practice, Paul explains how the making,sharing, and formation of artistic friendships within prisons canconstitute acts of resistance against the violence and banality ofprison life. Most of the artists did not make art before coming toprison. Their accomplishments show that art making need not be aprivilege of the few, but is rather a basic human need, and in thesecircumstances, a necessary means of survival. Making Art in Prison reveals--through the eyes of the artistswho have lived through it--what mass incarceration looks and feels likein the United States. It reveals the ways in which they keep theirhumanity intact; it invites us to reflect on our own humanity and theproblem of living in a country that incarcerates more of its populationthan any other nation in the world. It also invites us to look closelyat the images and appreciate the richness of life and luminosityemerging from the darkest corner of our country.
Radical landscapes : art, identity and activism
Unravel: the power and politics of textiles in art
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The transformative power of contemporary textiles is the subject of this exhibition catalog that examines how and why textile has been a fertile medium for artists to question regimes of power and hierarchies of value. Bringing together more than 100 works by a diverse range of international practitioners, this eye-opening volume explores how textile art can be as discomforting as it is beautiful, and how age-old materials and processes are being reimagined with boundary-smashing innovations. From intimate hand-crafted works to large-scale sculptural installations, this book celebrates the legacies of artists such as Pacita Abad, the arpilleristas, and José Leonilson. Also featured here are works by living artists such as Igshaan Adams, Tracey Emin, and Cecilia Vicuña. Featuring new essays by Julia Bryan-Wilson, Miguel A. Lopez and Denise Ferriera da Silva, and texts by Michelle Adler, Diego Chocano, Wells Fray-Smith, Lotte Johnson and Amanda Pinatih, this beautifully produced book features a collection of renowned artists from around the world and reveals the extraordinary potential of textiles to confront fixed notions of history, race, gender, sexual expressions, and class--and how, ultimately, it can be a powerful force for both resistance and repair.
To find books in the MSU Libraries (including the Art Library), use the Libraries' catalog. You can search by KEYWORD for a topic, such as art and activism or you can search by title or author.
The following are sample keyword/subject searches:
art and politics
art and social action
art and incarceration
artists and community
political art
textiles and politics
*Remember to note if the book is in the library and the location or if the book is in Remote Storage. Also, we have many e-books in our catalog, so watch for the link to access those publications.
Can't find the book or article you need? The MSU Libraries works with other libraries in the Big 10 and beyond, allowing us to borrow books and receive scans of articles from other libraries. If you need a book or article that MSU doesn't have access to you can request it via ILL. Go to the Interlibrary Services page to get what you need - for free!
