Art for Peace's Sake

Artists Respond: American Art and the Vietnam War, 1965-1975 – Minneapolis Institute of Art through Jan 5, 2020.

This exhibition contains over 100 works by 58 artists who challenged the apolitical styles of abstract expressionism, pop and op art in the 1960s and 1970s.  They saw art as connected to social and political reality, not the simple manipulation of color and form leading only to ‘cool’ aesthetic contemplation.   This is why they focused on one of the most important issues of the day – the American war in Vietnam.  Nearly all of this art is anti-war, as most young artists opposed the war.

A paralyzed U.S. vet paints his life after the War.

Many forms of art are represented in the show – photography, installations, painting, prints and posters, performance, dance, conceptual, street theater, collage, newspapers.  There are a significant number of women artists - in fact it is quite surprising how women artists hated this war.  One even made a picture she considered to be the most ‘ugly’ she could, based on GI bathroom graffiti, reflecting their anger.  Chicano, indigenous, veteran and darker-skinned artists are also represented, as are artists from other countries who moved to the U.S.  Organizations like the Chicano Moratorium, Artists and Writers Against the War in Vietnam, Black Emerging Cultural Coalition, the Artworkers Coalition and Consafo have art in this show.  

Some famous names pop up – Yoko Ono and John Lennon; Judy Chicago; Claus Oldenburg; Ed Paschke.  Reviled figures like LBJ, Hubert Humphrey, Robert McNamara, Madame Nhu and Richard Nixon are pilloried.  Napalm, defoliation, executions, blood and death are the theme of course. 

Some of the notable work:  A living room with a TV showing the day’s death count in Vietnam.  The famous “War is Over – if you want it” poster by Ono.  A swearing and angry painting by Bernstein, a feminist.  Photos of anti-war activists being arrested and photographed.  “Big Daddy” – a large painting of a line-up – a KKK thug, a soldier, a cop, a butcher and ‘big Daddy’ sitting in the middle with a bulldog on his lap.  A deformed Nixon with a club-foot.  A monumental torn canvas of Vietnamese civilians hiding from U.S. soldiers.  “A Medal for Johnnie” by Chapin, in which a grotesque LBJ pins a medal on a dead soldiers chest, while Hubert Humprey grins like a idiot in the background.  “Mudman” – a Viet vet walks up and down 17 miles of Santa Monica boulevard dressed in red Vietnamese mud and sticks.   A massive picture of the injured, by Trevino.  A portrait of McNamara trying to make sense of the illogical.  LBJ as a Texas cowboy.  Ed Paschke’s “Tet” about the Tet Offensive in 1968.   A ‘democratic’ bomb being forced down the throat of a man. 

At the end there are some sensitive pen and ink portraits by NVA and Viet Cong artists, collected by Dinh Q Lě.  Unfortunately there are also portraits of Laotian Hmong collaborator generals, who worked with the CIA.  Their presence evidently shows pressure from the local St. Paul Hmong right-wing.  The main Plain of Jars in Laos was bombed to smithereens by U.S. aircraft, which evidently did not upset the Hmong generals hiding in the hills. 

 This show is free to veterans and their families.  It runs through January 5, 2020.

To read other reviews of art shows below, use these terms in the search box at the upper left:  “Hermitage,” “Tate,” “Street Art,” “Museum of Russian Art,” “Minneapolis Institute of Art,” “Walker Art Center,” “Desert of Forbidden Art,” “Art Basel Miami” and “Biennale Arte di Veniza.” 

The Cultural Marxist

November 15, 2019