“Progressive art can assist people to learn not only about the objective forces at work in the society in which they live, but also about the intensely social character of their interior lives. Ultimately, it can propel people toward social emancipation.”
Great quote from Angela Davis via Feministing. I tracked it down to Davis’s 1990 book of essays Women, Culture and Politics. Though oddly enough, when searching for the source I found a lot of websites attribute the quote to Salvador Dali. Which changes the meaning a bit. Or at the least the implied tactics.
Gustave Caillebotte, a key patron of the Impressionists, inherited his forturne from a supplier to the French during the Franco-Prussian war. The CIA promoted Abstract Expressionism. Tobacco pusher Philip Morris sponsors art and dance. It increasingly seems that, as the saying goes, “behind every great fortune there is a great crime,” and behind every big name artist is a great patron.
And so I enjoyed this series of para-military sill lives.