MYSTICAL IMAGES OF WAR

MYSTICAL IMAGES OF WAR
November 20, 2014
Why would an artist create a series of ‘mystical’ images of war? This was the question that ran through my mind as I viewed the prints by Natalia Goncharova (1881–1962) recently on display at MoMA in New York. I knew some of the background about this artist. She, along with her husband, Mikhail Larionov (1881-1964), was a key member of the early Russian avant-garde, which emerged just before World War I. The movement that they led was called Rayonism, and many of Goncharova’s most abstract paintings are organized by shard like shafts of light. Brilliant, brittle and fractal-like, this work was…

THE ART OF PROTEST

November 11, 2014
The exhibition Disobedient Objects, at the Victoria and Albert Museum through Feb. 1, 2015, foregrounds the objects and environments inspired by the outrage at inequality and injustice that motivates contemporary social protest movements. These objects, created from cheap, readily available everyday materials, challenge a hierarchical social system that is dependent on the consumption of expensive luxury items to mark class divisions. In the aftermath of the global depression/recession that began in 2008, a number of related social action movements mushroomed in disparate locations across the globe. However, they were connected by shared concerns for an increase in democratic process, a leveling of…