Word: artists
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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WITH THE DEMOCRATS in '72, the closed convention and the myth of the alienated artist have become things of the past: replacing the Madison Avenue slogan writers, today's American artists have come out swinging with some rhetoric of their own. "McGovern for McGovernment," was only one exhortation displayed in the lyrical posters of Alexander Calder (a prominent American artist currently living in France) at last week's sale and auction of contemporary art in Boston's Parker 470 Gallery...
Politics is not a new concern of the artist, yet the organizational form that this social concern is taking is as unique as the appearance of 18-year-olds at national conventions. Only in the last few years have art sales and auctions for political candidates become powerful instruments for encouraging voter participation in elections and fund raising. There has been no significant study made of such political art groups as yet; nevertheless, what such fresh groupings seem to point out is new and larger trends of sociological thought, participation, and interaction...
...Italy in 1286 in the Umbrian village of Perugia, resulted from the first pressures for social and professional organization. Civic rights were dependent on membership in these guilds by 1293, and the guild was like a father watching over the education of his son: the guild supervised the artist's religion, educational apprenticeships, contracts and relationships to patrons, and even had the power of punishment. By the 1400s artists like Brunelleschi in Florence asserted freedom against the guilds...
...fine artist found his place slowly among the other liberal arts, moving away from his previous position among the crafts. With the collapse of guilds as the liaison between society and the artist, commercial problems began to plague the artists as did an uninformed public who expected the artist to participate under the same constraints as any other citizen. The help of the specialized art dealer did not enter the scene until the 16th century, and to this day, the artist is a ill struggling to beat the economic system. Unlike the writer who is granted royalties for his efforts...
Still the artist's interest in his community has always been primary. In 1896 the famous Dreyfus case in France brought support from all the avant-garde artists of the time and caused Monet to sign a protest--the one overt political act of his life. George Orwell pointed out that when his works lacked political purpose they were lifeless. When great moral issues enter the world arena, artists react as a group as do other members of the community. In reaction to the Fascists in World War II, artists held shows of protest. The artist's subject matter...