From the Newsstands: This story appeared in The Eagle's December 2024 print edition. You can find the digital version here.
Politically-focused artwork can be found everywhere in D.C., from Smithsonian museum exhibits to street murals and on American University’s campus.
Art is a medium of expression, used also to understand and cope with political tensions.
Juliet Bellow, an associate professor of art history at the University, said she views political artwork, as do many of her students, as “a kind of comfort in that [prompts the realization] that people have lived through chaotic, unstable, frightening moments in the past.”
In the context of European art from 1789 to World War II, Bellow said, “There was this belief that objects [including art] can transform our lives [and] the way we relate to one another.”
Bellow said that in some sense, this belief has diminished over time but held that political art can be appreciated both as a fundamental medium of expression and as a powerful tool for coping with tensions around politics and elections.
According to School of Public Affairs senior Sebastian Mahal, an employee at the American University Museum in the Katzen Arts Center, art is not confined to a picture in a frame on a wall.
“There’s a prevalence of political memes or imagery on Instagram and things like that,” Mahal said. “That’s totally art. People are lying if they think that’s not some form of art. Kamala running on the framework of ‘brat summer’ for example and integrating it into the Kamala HQ, TikTok, things like that.”
From social media memes to political art exhibits such as “Faces of the Republican Party” by Jeff Gates and “Ralph Steadman: And Another Thing” about famous political cartoonist Ralph Steadman displayed in the American University Museum, political art is all around.
Living in D.C., students are at the nation’s political epicenter and witness political art in a unique context. There are a variety of exhibits and installations in D.C. that are especially thought-provoking and provide a contemplative backdrop to today’s politics.
The Hirshhorn Museum’s “Belief+Doubt” is an installation created by Barbara Kruger, and has been on display since 2012.
The text covering available surfaces asks open-ended questions about what structures of power influence and manipulate people, what democracy means and visitors’ beliefs and doubts.
In an interview with The Eagle, Assistant Curator at the Hirshhorn Museum Betsy Johnson said “We all need to question structures of power and the way we’re being manipulated. Barbara Kruger is someone who worked in news media, and in graphic design, and she thinks a lot about the messages that are coming at us.”
Outside the 14th Street Graffiti Museum, a mural features President Abraham Lincoln with rainbow tears that shed the word “VOTE.” The portrait was originally created alongside other street art by the Murals of Humanity and Uptown Main Street in 2020, in hopes of encouraging people to vote.
14th Street Northwest also features a graffiti-style portrait of Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, created by muralist Lisa Marie. Norton, a leader for both the feminist and civil rights movements, has represented the District of Columbia as a congressional delegate in the U.S. House of Representatives since 1991.
Political art is powerful regardless of its form. From street art murals calling or active voting to framed paintings in Smithsonian museums, all mediums can challenge and guide political beliefs.
The age of social media has also impacted the delivery of political art and activism.
“Chalk the Vote” 2024, is an interactive “chalk activism” initiative created by Chalk Riot, a women-owned mural house based in D.C. established in 2013 that relies heavily on social media for participants to share their message.
“Chalk the Vote” started as a way to compel others to vote by posting pictures of political messages and drawings done with chalk on social media. It provides a unique way for undocumented and underage Americans who can’t vote with an outlet to express their political beliefs freely along with registered voters.
“It’s important to not replace real political action with an engagement with political art,” Mahal said.
Mahal also said that a downside of political art in the landscape of social media is the effect of people believing that simply engaging with political art is an act of activism when it’s only the start.
Mahal explained art can be a powerful tool for encouraging political action, but simply engaging with political art such as liking, commenting under or sharing political art on social media is “superficial” and ultimately does “very little” for social movements.
Bellow told The Eagle that, regardless of the medium or current political climate, generations of artists and viewers will continue to use art in all its forms as a way to make sense of politics and cope with the effect of politics on their lives.
Artists have been using art to make sense of and express their feelings and opinions about war, economic crises and politics since the beginning of humanity, and expression of these issues through art is not new, she added.
“All art is political, I think, whether the artist intended it to be or not,” Gia Bambocci, a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences and American University Museum employee, said in an interview with The Eagle.
D.C. is home to politically-focused artworks in formal museums and casual street corners. Despite the political climate we are situated in, political art exhibits and pieces will continue to take on ever-changing meanings.
“I think that art has a particular quality, which is especially powerful in that it can make political change or lends its audience into some sort of perspective they might not have had otherwise,” Mahal said. “That’s what makes it an important medium.”
This article was edited by Jessica Ackerman, Marina Zaczkiewicz and Abigail Turner. Copy editing done by Luna Jinks, Emma Brown, Sabine Kanter-Huchting, Ariana Kavoossi, Ella Rousseau, Nicole Kariuki and Charlie Mennuti.
