“Art and politics have long been related. Art can articulate perceptions and understandings of events, for example, the Art Worker Coalition's poster "And Babies?" highlighted the killing of innocent civilians in the My Lai massacre. Art can take positions to motivate action, like Andy Warhol's famous image of Richard Nixon with the words, "Vote McGovern" printed underneath. Art the Vote is part of this tradition by encouraging people to participate in the political system.”
Dr. Susan E. Cahan, Des Lee Endowed Professor in Contemporary Art at the University of Missouri St. Louis and a member of the
Art the Vote committee.
Artist, critics, curators and the public have long argued that all art is political. Through the Art the Vote initiative, artists are encouraging the public—especially young voters and the creative community—to become more politically active. By reflecting on contemporary issues of concern to them, Art the Vote artists hope to elevate the importance of voting and inspire Missourians to participate in their democracy. For more information on the relationship between art and politics, Dr. Cahan, has prepared the following brief bibliography.
Compiled by Susan E. Cahan, May 2008
Becker, Carol, ed. The Subversive Imagination: Artists, Society, and Social Responsibility. New York: Routledge, 1994.
Berger, John. Ways of Seeing. New York: Penguin, 1977.
Campbell, Mary Schmidt. Tradition and Conflict: Images of a Turbulent Decade, 1963-1973. New York: The Studio Museum in Harlem, 1985.
Felshin, Nina, ed. But Is It Art?: The Spirit of Art as Activism. Seattle: Bay Press, 1995.
Ferguson, Russell, Martha Gever, Trinh T. Minh-ha, and Cornel West, eds. Out There: Marginalization and Contemporary Cultures. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1990.
O'Brien, Mark and Craig Little. Reimaging America: The Arts of Social Change. Philadelphia and Santa Cruz: New Society Publishers, 1990.
Smethhurst, James Edward. The Black Arts Movement: Literary Nationalism in the 1960s and 70s. Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press, 2005.
Stimson, Blake and Gregory Sholette, eds. Collectivism After Modernism: The Art of Social Imagination After 1945. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2007.
Wallis, Brian, ed. Democracy: A Project by Group Material. Seattle: Bay Press, 1990.
Wye, Deborah. Committed to Print: Social and Politcal Themes in Recent American Printed Art. New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1988.
