log in
Enter site
Login to use Arthive functionality to the maximum
Make It Visible: Art and Activism 1980-2000
Exhibition October 17, 2020 − January 3, 2021
Addison Gallery of American Art invites you to visit the exhibitionMake It Visible: Art and Activism 1980-2000.
The exhibition, which includes paintings, graphics, sculptures, photographs and documentary evidence, seeks to find an answer to the question: How will visual art make the social and political problems of our time visible and understandable for future generations?
Ronald Reagan's victory in the 1980 presidential election marked a fundamental shift in American culture and social life towards conservatism. Artists, alienated by the dominant culture of America in the late 20th century, found they were unwilling and unable to separate their art from their activism. Some, such as Lorna Simpson, Mark Morrisro, Glenn Ligon, and David Voinarovich, have used their racial, gender, and sexual identities to create autobiographical - often confrontational - works that made visible experiences of marginalization. Others, such as Jenny Holzer, Gran Fury, Robbie Conal, and the Guerrilla Girls, have used popular media such as bus advertisements and scoreboards to spread their scathing social criticism widely. In both overt and covert ways, artists have used their artistic practices to raise the mirror of the injustice of their time, to combat apathy and provoke change.
Based on site materialsAddison's American Art Galleries.
The exhibition, which includes paintings, graphics, sculptures, photographs and documentary evidence, seeks to find an answer to the question: How will visual art make the social and political problems of our time visible and understandable for future generations?
Ronald Reagan's victory in the 1980 presidential election marked a fundamental shift in American culture and social life towards conservatism. Artists, alienated by the dominant culture of America in the late 20th century, found they were unwilling and unable to separate their art from their activism. Some, such as Lorna Simpson, Mark Morrisro, Glenn Ligon, and David Voinarovich, have used their racial, gender, and sexual identities to create autobiographical - often confrontational - works that made visible experiences of marginalization. Others, such as Jenny Holzer, Gran Fury, Robbie Conal, and the Guerrilla Girls, have used popular media such as bus advertisements and scoreboards to spread their scathing social criticism widely. In both overt and covert ways, artists have used their artistic practices to raise the mirror of the injustice of their time, to combat apathy and provoke change.
Based on site materialsAddison's American Art Galleries.
