Politically Charged Prints Cause Talking in the Library
"It is at first mildly shocking to come upon such bluntly partisan artwork on a New York Public Library wall. Biting political satire is deeply a part of printmaking history — see Goya, James Gillray and Daumier — but handmade prints are no longer a significant form of political communication, and we don’t expect anything so brazenly tendentious in the public library context." --Ken Johnson, NYT 12/4/07
I would like to see Ken Johnson, in a blue silk Hawaiian shirt, do a tap dance within the area of the "tendentious" scale that he thinks is appropriately bipartisan for municipal institutions mounting exhibitions. He would look so beautiful, dancing there, with three places to heel or toe, four if you count that new slim volume on toasted white bread abstaining from jam.
