POLITICAL HISTORIES
History and politics have been consistently reflected in works of art from state formation to the present day. Whether as political propaganda or as poignant social critique, art can articulate collective attitudes, social changes, and political events in ways that are both timely and timeless. These representations allow us multiple points of entry into impactful events and important figures from long ago. They also provide a variety of approaches to current events from a critical perspective in which we consider not only the artist’s point of view, but also our own attitudes, beliefs, biases, and perspectives.
Matthew Brannon (American, b. 1971)
This work features Jacqueline Kennedy’s (1929-1994) dressing room table in the White House, closely modeled after archival photographs. It incorporates private and public aspects of the First Lady’s life: from items related to her beauty routine to images and objects that allude to her role as the president’s wife. Imbued with a mid-century aesthetic and incorporating historical imagery, the work highlights the Kennedys iconic status and relationship from a contemporary perspective.
Accession Number: 2019.2.7
Title: Jacqueline Kennedy’s White House Dressing Table
Date: 2019
Medium: Silkscreen on paper with hand painted elements
Rights: © Matthew Brannon
KEYWORDS
politics; Vietnam War; Kennedy; First Lady; White House; private; public; history.
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Michael Stone (American, b. 1945)
Influenced by his father, a draftsman for an aircraft company, Michael Stone creates digital images that coalesce the visual language of advertisement with historical events. In this work, he visually articulates a commentary on the United States foreign policies and interventions. It reminds viewers of the fragility of our democracy as an airplane slice through several ancient Greek columns. Represented in silhouette, Uncle Sam overlooks from the edge of the composition, witnessing democracy’s collapse.
Accession Number: 2018.7
Title: The End of Democracy
Date: 2013
Medium: Digital C-print
Rights: © Michael Stone
KEYWORDS
democracy; politics; politicians; Greece; American politics; Uncle Sam; freedom; war; history.
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Matthew M Brady (American, 1823 – 1896)
Unlike many of his Pop contemporaries, David Hockney drew his subject matter more from his own life, friends, and literature than from comics, ads, and other popular culture sources. In his earlier works, the artist often included references to literature and homosexual themes. In this work, Hockney presents an intimate portrait of his friend Joe MacDonald, his first friend to die from AIDS. In 1979 while Hockney was working in New York, he spent a lot of time with Joe during which he likely created this portrait.
Accession Number: 2013.9
Title: Abraham Lincoln
Date: 1861
Medium: Albumen print from wet collodion negative
Rights: Public domain.
KEYWORDS
Lincoln; president; republican; Civil War; carte de visite; photography; politics; history.
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William Gropper (American, 1897 – 1977)
This lithograph is one of several critical depictions Gropper made of the operation of the U.S. Congress. A pair of old lawmakers hurriedly present a bill for consideration while their colleagues look on, bored and inscrutable. In Gropper’s depiction, the legislative process is suffused with apathy, as if most congressmen can barely be bothered to engage in dialogue as they conduct the business of government. This work encourages consideration of today’s congressional politics.
Accession Number: 2001.4.6
Title: A New Bill
Date: 1950
Medium: Lithograph
Rights: Public domain
KEYWORDS
Congress; politicians; Washington DC; politics; demagoguery; illustrations; satire; newspapers; politics; history.
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Norman Rockwell (American, 1894-1978)
Reproduced on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post, the Four Freedoms embodied Pres. Roosevelt’s reframing of the Bill of Rights with four concepts— freedom of speech and worship as well as freedom from fear and want. The limited perspective of the original works has come to serve as a potent reminder of the yet-unfulfilled promises of the country and its ideals, spurring artists, activists, and everyday people towards further advocacy for the American Dream.
Accession Number: 2019.4.1 - 2019.4.4
Title: Four Freedoms
Date: 1943
Medium: Offset-lithograph
Rights: © 1943 SEPS: Licensed by Curtis Licensing, Indianapolis, IN
KEYWORDS
Four Freedoms; World War II; Pres. Roosevelt; Bill of Rights; politics; freedom; magazines; war bonds; posters; American identity; history. VIEW
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Hank Willis Thomas, Emily Shur + For Freedoms (American)
These works recreate the original representations of the four freedoms by Norman Rockwell, more than seventy years later, in the context of contemporary society. The reimagined scenes portray the complexity and diversity of the American public absent from the Rockwell depictions. Each of these images reinforces the importance of inclusivity from a current perspective. The recreation included celebrities as well as everyday Americans who participated in the wide-reaching project.
Accession Number: 2018.1.28 - 2018.131
Title: For Freedoms
Date: 2018
Medium: Archival pigment print
Rights: © For Freedoms
KEYWORDS
Four Freedoms; activism; politics; equality; freedom; American identity; visibility.
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OBJECT FILE
Danh Vo (Danish, b. 1975)
This work is a fragment of a full-scale copper replica of the Statue of Liberty. A symbol of freedom, the monument consists of a delicate, thin, and hollow structure. The various pieces in this series, including this part of Liberty’s garment, exist in collections throughout the world, never to be brought together to reconstruct the monument in its entirety. The fragments of We The People both physically and conceptually symbolize the fragility of freedom.
Accession Number: 2018.1.19
Title: We The People (Detail)
Date: 2011-16
Medium: Copper
Rights: © Studio Danh Vo
KEYWORDS
US Constitution; freedom; Statue of Liberty; symbolism; politics; democracy; history.
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Shawn Theodore (American, b. 1970)
Born in Los Angeles, Amanda S. Gorman is the first National Youth Poet Laureate. Her poem The Hill We Climb, which she delivered at the inauguration of the 46th president of the United States, drew national attention and praise for its call for unity, action and change, especially after the January 6th insurrection. The last few verses of the poem are a direct invitation for each of us to become agents of change.
Accession Number: 2021.4
Title: Portrait of Amanda S. Gorman
Date: 2018
Medium: Archival pigment print
Rights: © Shawn Theodore. Image courtesy of Kahn Contemporary
KEYWORDS democracy; politics; poetry; presidential inauguration; elections; insurrection; history.
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Elinor Carruci (Israeli-American, b. 1971)
This image is part of a series of photographs by Elinor Carucci commissioned by Time magazine to illustrate the article “Portraits of Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Favorite Collars and the Stories Behind Them.” Justice Ginsburg, known popularly as RBG, was only the second woman to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court. Her collars, often gifts from admirers, colleagues, or students, were encoded with layers of meaning that frequently related to the cases she was working on.
Accession Number: 2021.1.1
Title: Court Collar
Date: 2020
Medium: Archival pigment print
Rights: © Elinor Carucci
KEYWORDS
Supreme Court; justice; RBG; feminism; judicial; progressivism; service; politics; history; legal.
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George L.K. Morris (American, 1905 – 1975)
During World War II, painter George L.K. Morris worked as a draftsman for a Naval architect. The precise and methodical approach he developed in the Navy is visible in this work. He depicts the mechanical components that allow bomber airplanes to be transformed into destructive machines of war. Though his attempt to join the war effort was unsuccessful, the painting is an interesting combination of his cubist abstraction with the needs of wartime representation.
Accession Number: 2017.15.4
Title: Precision Bombing
Date: 1944
Medium: Oil on canvas
Rights: © Frelinghuysen Morris House & Studio Lenox, Massachusetts
KEYWORDS
war; abstraction; history; cubism; Nazism; military; Navy; bombings; politics.
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ADDITIONAL WORKS
Jenny Holzer, 6 Text: U.S. government document, 2012
Rirkrit Tiravanija, Untitled (El odioso olor de la verdad), 2020
Peter Turnley, Ronald Reagan, Moscow, 1985
