! THE NEW MUSUEM !

The artists exhibiting work in the New Museum all contribute to a display of a vast array of social and political inconsistencies and contradictions. As a white American girl who has had a fairly comfortable life, it's these kind of visuals that remind me of the struggles and barriers that people have always and continue to contest in attempts to reach a life like mine: one that is unfortunately unlikely for them to ever obtain regardless of the power in their fight.

EMORY DOUGLAS:
The graphic quality to his imagery combined with large, bold text creates a powerful "in-your-face" effect - an obvious goal of the artist's. The flat imagery and words makes these posters and wall paintings are extremely viewer-friendly. One would not need any sort of prior art history knowledge to understand what his work is about. While I can understand very simply that his work is about the fight for equality and an homage to African-American struggles, it is something that I will never be able to relate to on a personal level.

DAVID GOLDBLATT:
The artist's sequential display of black and white photographs shows the consistency in his work for the duration of his career. This exhibition concentrated on the political corruption and extreme differences of lives and opportunities for the occupants of South Africa. This series acted as an informant to viewer more so than a series of artwork (although the photographs are beautiful.) While one might originally see the pieces only as artsy images, it is the almost overly informative captions that transform the work into news.


Later on in the day I visited the F.I.T. Museum to see the Fashion & Politics show - an appropriate theme for the day. While the themes of the actual works were very different from what I saw at the New Museum, it was interesting to see the role that politics plays in so many different forms of art. When each piece is being made, the artist is probably not considering the idea that what they are creating will turn out to be an artifact, giving tangibility to the time-line of our world's history. Beautiful.