“To use art is not enough.”
— Ai Weiwei on why blogging/tweeting/writing about politics is important.
hyde or die
Maps, art, dealers, drama, politics, borders, loyalty, New York, art scene…I like it.
Contemporary art devoid of irony, imagine that. In what artist John Zinsser describes as a 25-year love affair with the New York art scene, his new show at James Graham & Sons delineates old-school gallery alliances with geographical borders. Think of it as a primer for whatever happens at Miami Basel this week: without Leo Castelli, would Warhol be selling for a bajillion dollars today? Can the young guns possibly compete?
via famouslywildly
Reblogged from .
Jeff Sheng Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell
Why would you want to take a portrait of someone without showing his or her face? The essence of portrait photography, after all, is to capture the spirit of the subject and to reveal some crucial aspect of his or her identity.
But in the case of L.A. photographer Jeff Sheng’s latest project, capturing his subjects’ faces would almost certainly put their careers in jeopardy. That’s because Sheng has set about to photograph U.S. military service personnel who are gay but closeted in their work lives. Titled “Dont’ Ask, Don’t Tell,” the ongoing project consists of a series of stark, sometimes sad, portraits of U.S. soldiers who are forced to hide a part of who they are. via…
“While this failure is often interpreted as proof of art’s incapacity to penetrate the political sphere as such, I would argue instead that if the politicization of art is seriously intended and practiced, it mostly succeeds.”
