More Actual Political Art

Watching the Shepard Fairey “HOPE poster” tempest in a teapot that’s been the inflating the blogosphere makes one think about two things, the legitimacy of street art in an age of merchandising and the role of art in politics. So I guess political art is on everyone’s mind, especially after almost a decade of anti-Bush posters and paintings (how many of us artworlders have some kind of Bush era work in our living rooms?), bookended by Fairey’s iconic poster (it’s iconic whether I think Fairey’s work is milquetoast or not), there is a silent vacuum in the room, and no one knows what to say in the absence of anger.

Anyways… The New York Times is running a story on Beacons of Humanity, described as “Baghdad’s first Sadrist art exhibition”. In a society like ours, even obvious political gestures must be prefaced with the label “This is a Political Gesture”, but in a society at war with itself, or under extreme transition, the production of any art at all cannot escape becoming

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