- NEW YORK -- It may come as
no surprise to learn that the arts community in New York and elsewhere
in the United States is mostly liberal-leaning and would be happier to
see John Kerry than George Bush inaugurated as the next President in 2005.
But, more than ever before, painters, gallery owners, dealers and
collectors
are putting enormous energies, and dollars, into fighting the Democratic
candidate's corner.
-
- We are not just talking about so-called guerrilla
artists,
like the graffiti-inspired poster painter Mear One, who are deploying their
works to raise money for Democrat causes ahead of the 2 November election.
Even some well-heeled galleries in Manhattan, who might normally be
concerned
about alienating wealthy Republican clients, are choosing to wear their
election hopes and fears on their sleeves.
-
- New fund-raising laws mean that private groups cannot
deliver money directly to the candidates any more. Well-publicised
loop-holes
do make it possible, however, to funnel unlimited dollars towards the
broader
party and to very important causes like get-out-the vote drives to support
Mr Kerry.
-
- The Cheim & Reid gallery in west Chelsea, one of
the city's most prestigious spaces, for instance, hosted to a Democratic
fund-raiser in July this year, regardless of the risk of earning a
political
reputation Republican customers might not like.
-
- "This is the most important election of my
lifetime,"
gallery owner John Cheim told TheArtNewspaper.com. "If people choose
not to patronise the gallery because of our political affiliation, then
so be it." The gallery conceded that it had already lost one client,
who had previously spent over $1m with them.
-
- One action group with a broad membership of artists and
creative professionals, Democratic Victory 04, held a highly successful
fund-raising auction in June at the Manhattan branch of the Philips, de
Pury & Co art auction house. Dubbed 'Buy art, bye bye Bush', the event
raised over $2.1m. The dealer Larry Gagosian and the Canadian architect,
Frank Gehry, donated a sculpture valued at $1m.
-
- The co-chairman of the sale, artist Chuck Close, said:
"I'd like regime change. The administration is on the wrong course,
I have feelings about the illegitimacy of the presidency and about the
illegitimacy of the war. This regime is taking away people's rights in
the name of homeland security. Our basic civil rights, freedom of
expression
and freedom of speech, among several other issues, are at
risk."
-
- Works offered at the auction, whose honourary chairwoman
was the actress Meryl Streep, came from a wide range of well-known artists
that included Richard Artschwager, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Alexander
Calder, Robert Rauschenberg, Mark Rothko, Chuck Close, Richard Diebenkorn,
Jim Dine, Jane Frielicher, Nan Goldin, Jenny Holzer, Ellsworth Kelly,
Louise
Lawler, Sol LeWitt, Agnes Martin, Claes Oldenburg, Doug & Mike Starn,
Frank Stella, and Ed Ruscha.
-
- Financial disclosures, meanwhile, show that Robert
Rauschenberg
is among private donors to Democratic Victory 04. The American pop artist
is shown to give the group $71,000. A larger donation of $240,000 has come
from Johanna Liesbeth de Kooning.
-
- Another group co-sponsoring the auction was America
Coming
Together, dedicated to raising as much money this year for Democratic
candidates
and voter drives. It is principally funded by Peter B. Lewis, a trustee
of the Guggenheim Museum in New York, and by the billionaire financier,
George Soros.
-
- Brooklyn-based action group Downtown for Democracy, or
D4D, has a full schedule of art-related fund-raising events for the
Democratic
party. Among its initiatives was to sponsor the marketing and exhibition
of a poster drawn in spray paint by Mear One that shows President Bush
in demonic, militaristic mode, with the words: "Let's Play
Armegeddon".
Another shows a picture of Mr Bush with the flaming Twin Towers erupting
from his forehead.
-
- The rock icon Lou Reed will top the bill at a fundraiser
for D4D next week at Cooper Union in downtown Manhattan next Tuesday.
Called
"Joyful in November", the gala evening - tickets are $40 each
- is designed to energise supporters ahead of the election. Other
performers
include Bill T. Jones, Lisa Kron, The Lynne Cheney Players, Will Power
and Carmelita Tropicana.
-
- And tomorrow night, D4D, will be presenting the premier
of a new film by John Sayles. Called Silver City, it a tale of political
intrigue featuring a fictional and verbally challenged gubernatorial
candidate
in the American West, played by Chris Cooper. Daryl Hannah also stars in
the film.
-
- Other musicians are pulling their weight for the Democrat
contender on the so-called "Vote for Change Tour", a series of
rock concerts that will double as get-out-the-vote drives.
-
- Among the groups and rock stars signed up for the
high-wattage
tour are Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam, the Dave Matthews Band, James
Taylor,
REM and the Dixie Chicks.
-
- Los Angeles-based artist Robbie Conal heads a so-called
guerrilla postering effort, dedicated to plastering the public spaces of
America with his artwork ridiculing President Bush and Vice-President Dick
Cheney. One of his best-known posters, which are similar in style to those
by Mear One, show a grim-faced Bush beneath the message: "Read my
Apocolips".
-
- "The postering we do is legal," Conal noted.
"It's a form of civil disobedience" He launched similar campaigns
against the first President Bush and against Ronald Reagan. "This
is a very street way of communication, unmediated by the media," the
artist commented. "It's like rap art. The essence of it is resistance.
The people I paint are so powerful, and this is an expression of people
who are not so powerful."
-
- Back in the more rarefied climes of Manhattan's gallery
district, another well-known gallery, the James Cohan Gallery - currently
home to a solo exhibition of Wim Wenders' photographs - recently sponsored
a so-called phone-bank party in its large 26th Street space.
-
- The Cohan event, dubbed a "phonathon", was
sponsored by the prominent Democratic action group, Moveon.org, largely
supported by Mr Soros. For a whole Saturday, about 40 volunteers invaded
the gallery and cold-called, on their mobile phones, registered Republican
voters in swing states and tried to persuade them that Kerry would be the
better choice.
-
- "We have been uncharacteristically active for a
private business - James supports John Kerry and hasn't been afraid to
say that," confirmed the gallery manager, Liorah Brown, yesterday.
"We all pretty much feel that in the gallery. In fact, it has been
sort of surprising the number of galleries that have been quite vocal this
time to support John Kerry."
-
- The James Cohan gallery, which is close by Cheim &
Reid, has even taken the highly unusual step of taking out a political
advertisement in next month's issue of Art Review magazine in support of
John Kerry, with a quote from the candidate chosen by Mr Cohan.
-
- Right next door is White Box gallery, which has also
been vocal in its effort to back Mr Kerry and in its opposition to
President
Bush, with frequent events and stalls on the pavement to encourage New
Yorkers to vote - and vote Democrat - in November.
-
- "We have been very surprised," said Esa Nickle,
the manager of White Box, talking about the anti-Bush activity in the
gallery
community.
-
- The gallery had a voter registration party in May, as
well as a tongue-in-cheek exhibition that ran through August and early
September, poking fun at the Republican National Convention held recently
in New York. It featured a huge installation, including balloons and
confetti,
by poster artist Kyle Goen. All summer he has been pasting one of his
political
posters, entitled "Elect a Madman, you get Madness", in different
American cities.
-
- The gallery also helped support sculptor Karin Giusti,
who created a Greenhouse on wheels, shaped like the White House, and
designed
to lampoon President Bush and his environmental policies. It was erected
on a trailer and Ms Giusti towed it from the back of a pick-up truck to
Texas and other southern states.
-
- In late October, White Box will be hosting another large
Kerry fund-raiser and opening a new exhibition called "Democracy is
Fun!?".
-
- And, as well as artists, gallery owners and rock stars,
there has been no shortage of Hollywood stars trying to be heard. Whoopi
Goldberg summed up the arts community's dedication to the cause after she
was was dumped as Slim-Fast's spokes-woman after making sexual puns about
Mr Bush at a $10-million, star-studded fund-raising gala for Mr Kerry at
New York's Radio City Music Hall earlier this summer.
-
- "I must do what I need to do as an artist, as a
writer and an American - not to mention as a comic."
-
- ©2004 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd. All rights
reserved
-
- http://news.independent.co.uk/world
- /americas/story.jsp?story=562177
|
