Combining some of the most pressing political and social changes of the time, "Freedom of Expression: Art in an Age of Uncertainty" brings together approximately 14 California artists whose work directly addresses such issues. The exhibit runs through Dec. 14 in the University Art Gallery.
The show ranges from the powerful woodblock prints from Sandow Birk's Depravities of War series to the satirical-but no less powerful-paintings and drawings of Enrique Chagoya.
The exhibition also includes prints by the noted Los Angeles-based political artist Robbie Conal, a sculpture composed of guns, bullets, buckshot, and bone by Al Farrow, a new video work by the collaborative team of Jeanne C. Finley and John Muse, mixed media work by Mildred Howard, and a legendary "black painting" by the late artist Wally Hedrick that was made in protest of the Vietnam War.
Art that addresses political and social issues, and in turn often criticizes the status quo, has existed in some form or another throughout much of art history, although the content was often allegorical and less direct (think of the 19th century paintings of Courbet or David).
Twentieth century examples include the German Expressionist George Grosz, the post-war Social Realism of Ben Shahn, or Picasso's Guernica of 1937, which was inspired by the bombing of the Bassque town of Guernica by German planes during the Spanish Civil War. The Spanish Civil War also inspired Robert Motherwell's Elegy to the Spanish Republic series.
Contemporary political art came about during the late 1960s, a time when the boundaries between life, politics, and art were increasingly difficult to discern.
By the 1970s, many artists could no longer ignore the events happening in the streets-and within government agencies-and focused their art on reacting to, and commenting on, events such as the war in Vietnam, the civil rights movement, radical politics, the "sexual revolution", and other sweeping changing in Western culture and society.
Gallery hours are Tuesday - Friday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., and weekends, noon - 4 p.m. the gallery is closed on Mondays and holidays. For more information, please call (707) 664-2295 or e-mail carla.stone@sonoma.edu
